Home
Reiki Digest
Log in
These are posts from my facebook group, of research that only took me 48 hours to do. The stuff wrote here is all fact, and most of it is completely independant of anything to do with Reiki. I've collated it, and restructured it to be more cohesive for this post. There's literally 100's of things to show there was very, very little anti-Japanese sentiment, here's just a handful. Thanks for reading.
Did Hawayo Takata lie about things because of anti-Japanese sentiment?
We all know the assumption that Hawayo Takata lied about certain aspects of Reiki history in order to make it more 'appealing' to the anti-Japanese feelings in USA, post-WW2. How accurate could this reason be?
It's true that during World War 2, there was anti-Japanese feelings in USA. Even as far as interning the whole of the Japanese population, including buddhists. However, what's also true is that after their release, Buddhists began to have some semi-celebrities (writers) take an interest in Zen, in the 1940's & 1950's. Zen buddhists, even enjoyed growth in their numbers in the 1960's & 1970's in USA. In 1959, Robert Aitken, (an american POW in Japan in the war) founded the Diamond Sangha in Honolulu, Hawaii. Home state of Hawayo Takata.
Karate, as we know is from Japan, was brought to the USA in 1945 by american soldiers. With people like Tsutomu Ohshima going to UCLA in 1955, and founding the first Karate club in US in 1957 in Caltech. In the 1960's Karate began to spring up all over the US.
Origami began to be introduced to the US by Lillian Oppenheimer, from the late 1940's onwards.
Some more interesting points:
1. July 26th, 1952: Tommy Kono becomes first Japanese American gold medallist.
2. Dec 1952: First Japanese television show broadcast in Hawaii.
3. April 1955: "California's amazing Japanese" by Demaree Bess, Saturday Evening Post. "The Japanese residents of California have lifted themselves higher in a few post-war years than they did in the preceding century, and the agitation against them has almost been silenced".
4. March 26th, 1958: Miyoshi Numeki wins an academy award for best supporting actress, in 'Sayonara'.
5. In 1959, Hawaii (the only state where Japanese weren't mass interned), became the 50th state. Daniel Inouye was the first Japanese American elected to the House of Representatives.
6. November 6th, 1962: Idaho voters vote by 123,542 to 41,206 to approve a constituition ammendment extending basic american rights to naturalized asian americans. Idaho was the LAST state to hold restrictions.
7. In 1962, Daniel Inouye becomes first Japanese American elected to the Senate.
8. In 1974, Norman Mineta was elected first mainland Japanese American to the House of Representatives.
The talk in which Hawayo Takata said about the disputed aspects of Reiki history, was made in 1979. As we can see, there was even very little anti-Japanese sentiment in the 1950's, never mind over 20 years later.
It's true that during World War 2, there was anti-Japanese feelings in USA. Even as far as interning the whole of the Japanese population, including buddhists. However, what's also true is that after their release, Buddhists began to have some semi-celebrities (writers) take an interest in Zen, in the 1940's & 1950's. Zen buddhists, even enjoyed growth in their numbers in the 1960's & 1970's in USA. In 1959, Robert Aitken, (an american POW in Japan in the war) founded the Diamond Sangha in Honolulu, Hawaii. Home state of Hawayo Takata.
Karate, as we know is from Japan, was brought to the USA in 1945 by american soldiers. With people like Tsutomu Ohshima going to UCLA in 1955, and founding the first Karate club in US in 1957 in Caltech. In the 1960's Karate began to spring up all over the US.
Origami began to be introduced to the US by Lillian Oppenheimer, from the late 1940's onwards.
Some more interesting points:
1. July 26th, 1952: Tommy Kono becomes first Japanese American gold medallist.
2. Dec 1952: First Japanese television show broadcast in Hawaii.
3. April 1955: "California's amazing Japanese" by Demaree Bess, Saturday Evening Post. "The Japanese residents of California have lifted themselves higher in a few post-war years than they did in the preceding century, and the agitation against them has almost been silenced".
4. March 26th, 1958: Miyoshi Numeki wins an academy award for best supporting actress, in 'Sayonara'.
5. In 1959, Hawaii (the only state where Japanese weren't mass interned), became the 50th state. Daniel Inouye was the first Japanese American elected to the House of Representatives.
6. November 6th, 1962: Idaho voters vote by 123,542 to 41,206 to approve a constituition ammendment extending basic american rights to naturalized asian americans. Idaho was the LAST state to hold restrictions.
7. In 1962, Daniel Inouye becomes first Japanese American elected to the Senate.
8. In 1974, Norman Mineta was elected first mainland Japanese American to the House of Representatives.
The talk in which Hawayo Takata said about the disputed aspects of Reiki history, was made in 1979. As we can see, there was even very little anti-Japanese sentiment in the 1950's, never mind over 20 years later.
Last edited by Milarepa on Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:59 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : clarifying 'mass-internment')
. 
.
