Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
[Music] so [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] good morning good afternoon good evening wherever you are in the world it’s Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman with Relationship Matters TV. Hope everyone is having a beautiful wherever you are, wherever you are, however you are. Well, you know I had gotten off of my soapbox and now I’m back on it and you know why? Because of the numbers here in the United States of America as far as COVID is concerned. Now they’re talking about a surge in the fall. Well first they said a surge in the summer, now they put it back to a surge in the fall. Now why is that? There’s a surge because you people out there won’t wear your mask. COVID is not over and I know we’re tired, I’m tired. I would like to hug somebody, you know, I want to go out to restaurants, I want, I love concerts, I don’t mind crowds, I like crowds, but I wear my mask. And why do I wear it? I wear it just in case, just in case I have it and don’t know it, but I want to protect the people around me. Now we’ve reached 1 million people that have had or have contracted AIDS and today they had a special on about orphans and there are 250,000 children who are orphaned because of AIDS and one family was because the mom who had four kids was just afraid of the vaccine. So get your vaccine and once you get your vaccine, get your booster and if you don’t do any of that, please wear your mask because I really want to get off of my soapbox while I get up here. Now before I bring the guest on today, I want to make an announcement. I should have a drum roll and I don’t have a drum roll but I haven’t, I’m going to show you. Hi, this is me. I have been chosen, I won, I am now Miss Senior Illinois America [Music] wait yes that is me [Music] and so I since I live in Illinois I am a Senior Illinois America and in September I go to Pennsylvania and I compete against other senior women who are 60 and over and who are from all the different states in America so I want you all to send up some good vibes it’s run just like Miss America and Miss Universe um and the way you support me is just to send me some some good vibes and just put it out there in the universe that I win and that I will be Miss Senior America that’s it that’s all about me okay so now let’s talk about my guest for today his name is Takuan Amaru he and and uh I am so excited about having him here he’s the son of a black black Native American and a Japanese woman from the countryside in Kyoto Japan he is Takuan was placed in multicultural settings where he received many life lessons he’s an author a teacher a mental health specialist former columnist for the Examiner magazine which is in Philadelphia and he has written over 100 articles about pop and culture music ancient spirituality and philosophy he now lives in I hope I pronounced this right Nagoya Japan I want you to meet him when I grow up I want to be just like him and I uh let’s see he’s been over 100 articles I got a long way to go welcome.
Takuan Amaru
Thank you very much for having me Dr. Jan. I’m doing absolutely wonderful, how about yourself?
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I am doing great, I’m doing great. It’s just a pleasure to have you on. We met in the metaverse.
Takuan Amaru
Yep, we kind of met right?
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah, we kind of met right?
Takuan Amaru
Yeah, we yeah in the metaverse, you know, through our avatars.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Through our avatar but now I see him in person. So Takuan, I have so much to talk about with you and what I wanted to focus on was you and the way your life, how you grew up and you have you have a trilogy and your trilogy so I want to make sure I pronounce it correctly the trilogy is Gaikokujin. Okay, so before we really talk about your your trilogy which is really your life story, what does Gaikokujin mean?
Takuan Amaru
Okay and thank you very much for the question. I know I also want to shout out uh Sister Asada uh Kirkland on the Chicago Soulful uh Book Fair that’s what we were talking about the avatars but um yeah the book Gaikokujin is a trilogy and it covers my life from from my childhood to I’m 21 so many different crazy things happened and I make the claim that uh I use the term melanin rich and I think because of the peculiar nature of the society we live in no matter where you live uh for us right now to sit here and be in our homes or wherever you are if you’re not I mean I’m gonna be honest if you’re not crazy if you’re not incarcerated or you haven’t been killed or anything there’s been a series of miracles that have led you to this place um I think the ones that the details of mine are just kind of funny or a little bit more extreme than most so I put it on paper but when you read this hopefully you will see like hey you know that reminds me of of so-and-so and that reminds me of such and such because the stories are there’s really no new stories.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay but but as far as Gaikokujin the word if you say Gaikokujin to a Japanese person they will tell you that it means foreign or foreign national.
Takuan Amaru
Okay so that’s the just the the phonetics of hearing it right but I have kind of coined a word because um I don’t have the if you see the the three kanji actually I have a book if you see the three kanji right so we have guy koku gene so this means outside this means black and this means person but in usually when you see the word Gaikokujin this middle symbol um I’m trying to see myself in the in the reflection um would not be black it would be country however the sound is the same koku right so I’ve kind of coined a word if you say to Japanese person just off rift they’ll be oh that means foreigner but if you show them this then they oh okay they’ll know it’s it’s not it’s a coined word but they’ll instantly get the meaning so I’m trying to incorporate foreigner and black person kind of together.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay so I’m looking at your name and I’m looking at Asiatic that because that’s the first time I’ve seen that.
Takuan Amaru
Yes yes the thank you um well Afroasiatic if you again is there if you google it they’ll tell you about a ancient set of like languages right um like America and there’s a bunch of languages that go in there I’m kind of going on that but I’ve joined Afro and put it together and originally this oh I’m trying to show really the original human right um that we you know come out of the cradle Africa and spanning around the world and um but we at the original at our maybe our original level you know we live differently than we do now before western society set in so I’m really trying to have a kind of a a broad symbol that you know something that symbolizes that but originally when we made that when I made Afro Asiatic it was for a hip-hop group that uh we were we had in Japan um a brother named James Elmore who ironically it lives in Chicago he’s from his Chicago native shout out to him and um he’s been shy right now and uh he and I we we formed a group and we had a we had a large group of um like Brazilian DJs and Japanese uh MCs and different people who would kind of be in the Afro-Asiatic family and we pretty we got pretty pretty popular um you know television uh radio and the mayor of Hamamatsu where we live he gave us the key to the city and and really boosted our our you know popularity so that’s the original that’s how it originally became um you know the the logo.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay so let’s let’s dive into your first book the first uh part of your book because it really starts talking about it because your history as a matter of fact I think the whole trilogy is really about you how you grew up your your journey to where you are now your relationships so let’s start from the beginning where you were born.
Takuan Amaru
Okay um kind of a strange story as everything um I actually was born in the U.S um but my my sister and we are an adopted brother they were born in Japan right so my family lived in Japan my father who is a black American from Alabama you know he wanted one of his kids to be born in the U.S so according to the story they actually had my mother when she was about to give birth you know I don’t know how close it was exactly but had them fly me to of all places Topeka Kansas and I was born there and then you know as soon as she could get back you know she came we came back to Japan so my family kind of started in Japan um and for years I thought Topeka was a city in in Japan when I was a small kid you know um so you know technically I was born in the U.S but the story and I guess my ideology and the way I was brought up begins in Japan I hope that answers the question.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yes that does answer answer my question so uh just just kind of go into I I read some of your I read all of your bio and went on your page and everything and tell me about tell us about your mom and actually let’s talk about the first book in your trilogy.
Takuan Amaru
Okay thank you okay and that’s this book that I just held up it’s the green one like all of this cover is all all the same but um yeah okay so the green book this basically covers when I uh a child from a child to high school through my high school years um and ironically I didn’t want to write this book because most the things I wanted to write it was really when I went into the military I went into the army and I was a very lost kid like a lot of young black youth are uh I was getting all the wrong messages or and doing all the wrong things I wanted to be a tough guy and and you know you start hearing either gonna be a rapper a basketball player or uh somebody on the street and um and so yes so many things from going into the into the military kind of with that attitude of trying to get over and and and then becoming and really just getting out of that and really having to to learn the hard way without getting killed or incarcerated that right there is so many it was so many miracles that I I r even when it was happening I was like I gotta write something this has to be documented um so those were the stories I wanted to write without ruining them but after I finished them my editor came and said well you have to you know you have to write the story of how you grew up because nobody will understand it because I kept giving him back stories while I was well he was editing and he was like well I understand you now but no one’s going to understand it so writing the first book was very painful for me and it was very embarrassing in many respects right um but it starts out as me you know really um coming to the US and we moved a lot of places but I I put everything kind of in one area just to you know simplify it and so everybody could understand it and it’s basically my family you know black Japanese were were moving from the military base on you know into a civilian neighborhood and first we moved into like white neighborhoods right and you know just the difference between like like we knew white people on the base but many of them were all mixed um what we didn’t know was the base we were at McGuire Air Force Base which was in uh which is in South Jersey was at the time post Vietnam War it was designated for mixed race couples and I found this out way later so like all my friends were were mixed right so although I knew some white people they were usually like from Germany or something and they would be married to an American right be a woman that was married to an American let’s say but when we moved off the base you know we started seeing you know how this society really really functions and just the alienation you know I I realized quickly it was like it was black versus white no matter what your color was no matter what you were coming from you were you were immersed in this and you had to learn this game um.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I never heard I’ve never heard of that that a base would be specifically for mixed mixed race you know.
Takuan Amaru
It wasn’t the only one um I don’t want to misquote but yeah I I’ve gotten information you know because you know I’m ex-military speaking to people they they told me and it made sense once they said it you know you think about you know just civil rights you know 1965 and we’re talking about like 70s here okay so they’re really really what are we going to do how are we going to let this you know the the mixing occur so they had to do it in certain experimental locations right wow so they concentrated you know certain in certain areas so yeah like all my friends were mixed yeah.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay so how difficult was it when you had to transition from let’s say a mixed environment to a different environment I would imagine in all white environment.
Takuan Amaru
Oh it was it was it was crazy it was traumatic right you know kids go through different levels of trauma right growing up is really that but you know there’s positive trauma and then there’s negative right so I would say most of it was was positive but there was you know some some really crazy things you know especially when and also coming from the the mentality of the east to the west and nobody is is is giving us any counseling nobody talks about like people do it a lot more now like even I do it when I’m I I have lessons where I’m talking to families who are going to go and they’re going to live in the United States and I I’m dealing with the children and yeah and they’re really happy because I tell them yeah this this you know it’s going to be strange right uh for you but yeah people have no idea what what it’s like it’s not just the language barrier but it’s it’s the culture it’s the ethics and so yeah you learn all kinds of things in in many cases in America you learn it the hard way right you learn it by being at the short end of the stick right so yes but but on the white end of it like when we first moved the first couple areas we moved it was all white and then we moved to one area called Willingboro and then it was white when we got there and then it became black right that’s what I say I think white flight you you you brought the black and you know as a child as a child you know you know when you’re three or four months seems like what would be years for us now right so yeah when I was as a child I didn’t think it was us I thought it was like when this Filipino family moved in then I realized we’d only been living there for a couple months right you know you know and um yeah so and then the climate changed um and with it you know this is a big theme of book one you know I had to learn how to quote unquote be black right um it was strange when it moved from white to black the biggest phenomena was the TV series Roots.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh.
Takuan Amaru
And many of us recall seeing Roots for the first time I don’t know how depending on what your age was but I was in elementary school and um everybody was watching and I wasn’t allowed to stay up that late like my parents were strict right okay and once once everybody I came back we came back everybody’s watching us except us like you know and so we were already kind of alienated right so they were okay so okay you can stay up and watch it that was that was one of the very few negotiations my sister and I won and um but I remember this was really really big because um after Roots every time I saw white people they were getting beat up by black people for for about two or three years it seemed like I mean I I literally when I was in middle school I used to literally look around my homeroom and see you know white guys that I knew and a lot of one I was friends with I used to wonder like how did you get to school today because the white news I saw were being harassed you know like your roots really had a traumatic effect on um on me on on the people around me and in South Jersey in the Philadelphia area I don’t know how it went down with you but uh just this knowledge of slavery and everything like that.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So was this the first time that you had uh learned about you know slavery and all this uh through.
Takuan Amaru
Of course of course of course I yeah yeah you know like I said you know my you know when I was coming into this uh like you know on the base there are you know black kids but everybody is the military right right the code is military everybody’s kind of the same right that’s what uniform means right so when you come off and you start going into the hood you know right and you start getting this crash course and and they’re all looking at me like you ain’t black you know you ain’t black and they would just sit your your kids or kids right so they’re gonna tell you like no no you got to lose the uh you know the sneaker you you’re going to have to change this up here if you’re going to hang out you know and you know so a lot of it was the dozens you know and um but yeah just this thing and a big thing was like I used to play baseball and I was very very I was a very accomplished baseball player because my neighbor he was very very good at baseball he used to I used to play with him he used to make me play he was three years older than me and he was like the best in his grade so when I first started playing little league I was way better than everyone you know like people were checking my age how old is he you know and um because I had been playing with these all-stars that were just killing me beat you know and um but it came to my attention from my friend uh Eric I um yeah I called him E in the book uh you know that’s that’s that’s that’s a that’s a white sport b um so you know you want you know switch it up to basketball football and once that came to my niles I dropped I dropped the baseball you know I dropped it and picked up a basketball okay just to show you how how how um how important like you know just fitting in getting along and I didn’t know it back then but for me sports was a a social vehicle okay you know I never wanted to be a pro I just I’m trying to get along I’m trying to survive here you know I’m trying to fit in you know and I realized oh oh I can play sports and that that gets you know uh respected around here okay well let’s enhance this you know.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Wow so now so that’s with you in the green book right and so the next book is the black book yes so tell us about that part of your life as far as the right now was it easier to to write the second book in in your trilogy.
Takuan Amaru
Oh yes because that that was from that point that’s where I wanted to write when I envisioned this I was like I’m gonna I have to write about because basically it was a a story about my time in the army it’s very very unorthodox uh it’s not you know some kind of soldier story it’s not American patriotic story it’s not a bash bashing America or anything like that either but it’s again it’s just a I think a miraculous story of just someone who you know I was trying to do the right thing but I was getting the wrong messages from lack of guidance growing up and it was like this is what was created but for some reason spirit found it necessary uh to let me learn these things in and just miss you know like you know miss danger in in destruction and I and again I me I met so many people along my journey who who fit into this and then some of them would go too far and then they they become incarcerated or some something bad would happen to them but these were like the lessons that I had to learn because I didn’t get it you know and maybe in a more conventional manner you know it’s kind of like I remember one of my friend’s grandmother saying she was like looking at us and she knew she like she knew he was up to no good you know but we we good boys though you know but she’s looking at she said hey you know you can you can learn this here right here from me or you can go out here and learn from this white man you know and you know we’re looking at like well you know what’s she talking about but you know we’re walking and thinking about this and just these kind of small things would make us change our decisions many in many cases you know and um yeah you know if you you know black in the hood you can just go to the corner store and get you know for your grandma to buy something and get wrapped up in something right this is not an uncommon story so when now the flip side also occurs I was a kid who’s trying to learn like hey hey hey I want to get along and doing a lot of negative things you know um some of it was was could have gotten me locked up again and nothing was happening like I was getting you know not get not getting away from getting away because getting away would indicate like I’m profiting you know I’m saying like um like one one instance was one time um we were doing a whole lot of bad things uh a lot of my friends got started selling drugs and we went into Camden and started trying to actually do this and here we I’m participating in this and this is a big dangerous thing and it was a friend of mine excuse a friend of my father’s my parents um and he they were black and Japanese the father was black and the mother was Japanese and I used to consider them my uncle my uncle and and the woman she’s they move wherever we moved you know because she was the only Japanese woman that that mom she knew my mother they were very close anyway the the man who’s black the husband his nephew came to live with him for a while he got out of the army he was like 25 he was older than me I’m 16 15 so I looked up to him immediately you know he had turntables you know he had turned he had his own car and so he invited me to a baseball game I didn’t and this is way after I was I wasn’t watching baseball anymore um but this is when Dwight Gooden was playing and um so I was like I didn’t want to go but I wanted to hang out with him so I just went went to this baseball game that day everybody who all these guys I was dealing with I didn’t really know they all got busted the police came and rounded everybody up so that I don’t know anything about this this is before internet you know this is the 80s right so this is before internet there’s there’s no way for me to find this out and these are guys who don’t live in my neighborhood so I come home and I’m making this long trip to Camden just to do this dirt and um and I go to cam the next day and everybody’s looking at me real funny and they’re like why are you here and I’m like what do you mean why am I here you know and I’m thinking they’re trying to challenge me or something you know I’m in this you know immature try to be tough stage and so they immediately just assumed I snitched.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh because you’re the only one left.
Takuan Amaru
Yeah I’m the only one I’m here and no one else is here and and your excuses you went to a baseball game and everyone’s looking at me kind of funny and you know it didn’t take me that long I was like maybe I need to leave and I actually got chased out of there yeah yeah so that was the end of my you know my street entrepreneur entrepreneurism so it wasn’t like I made the right decision that’s what I’m trying to say I got to I didn’t try to I didn’t I was trying to make the wrong decision but the spirit was like no get get get your get your amateur get yo you don’t belong here you know what I’m saying and and so it’s stuff like this and you know and then getting away oh these people don’t like me or maybe I should stay away from them you know like it was dangerous so and and it was so I mean stuff like and I didn’t even write that one in the book okay just to go just to show you that that one’s not even in the book it was just so many of these stories wow you know wow wow but book two is when I when I actually enter the army it actually starts from the day and and leave the end of book one um not the spoiler I mean it really really climaxes to a point where my father and I can’t live under the same roof and um and my father I wouldn’t describe him as um I mean he he’s a Vietnam vet and then everything else that comes with being black and and trying to raise a hard-hitted son in America I guess you could say um but you know he had a lot of a lot of pressure a lot of strain I wasn’t uh I’m not a physically abused child uh that actually went that honor went to my my dog and that was traumatizing to me I write about all this in the book but um my father had a lot of post-traumatic stress and uh could it wasn’t an abusive situation yes but I’m but I don’t look at my father as being abusive I look at him what I learned from my father more than anything was the strength because I always derive strength from him because uh and I say this in the book you know especially after that roots thing my father was from Alabama any any I saw my father literally go uh and just scare white men who said some kind of some racial epithet toward me and I learned early on oh any anybody say anything my father was in Vietnam in Korea he was a vet you know he felt entitled like no no I earned this and anyone said anything kind of crazy and I witnessed on at least three occasions my father went and set the record straight and that more than anything else really really set a precedent in me of strength because not only me everybody neighborhood was scared of my father okay right right it wasn’t just me I was like I’m not a punk here it’s like yeah he goes out and he he says he brings a he carries a big stick here you know but um.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Let me ask you how all did all of this affect your mother I read something about your mother and that she was descended from samurais.
Takuan Amaru
Yes yes.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So how did living in America uh uh having a mixed-race child married to a black man how did all of that affect her?
Takuan Amaru
You know if you watched my mother you would think there was no effect um you know that’s and that’s part of the Japanese being reserved you know I’ve never seen I’ve only seen my mother look frantic like once you know um she’s all just reserved and just steely almost you know uh my mother because she married out of not only and I write this in the book I specify this it was because people think it’s because uh he was black um I’m not gonna say that didn’t contribute to it but my father my mother is from before the war right she was a little girl uh during World War Two so she was looked at as like one of the biggest traders right leaving she went with the the the conqueror yeah right um so she was literally thrown out of the family right she was cast out of the family like out of the I mean records everything you know um so she was in both feet like there was no like you know like when you see these these race people right you know it’s usually mixed race people in today’s uh conversation with the FBA and all and they kind of have both no my mother was in there was nobody going nothing go back to there was nobody not nothing nothing but it was strange my mother never really became American she was just a Japanese woman who lived in Japan like when I meet other Japanese women in Japan other people I’m like yeah she’s kind of America my mother she never her English never got good um she could understand things fluently but a lot of my friends would be like man I didn’t know you could speak Japanese I’m like my mother was speaking English me you know they’re like oh yeah you know you know so um and all of her circle she she only dealt with I’ve only seen her with Japanese people in America she I never saw her with any black white anybody you know the exception might be a couple Filipino women only because of our we lived in the Philippines and uh number one there was a we had a Philippine neighbor in the states and then one of our friends uh my father’s friends in the military his one of his wives was Filipina and I didn’t know that for years right yeah because you know we’re kids we ain’t trying to hang around with the the adults right so when they’re all speaking with my parents they all speak English and then normally then you know when they break off then my the women would start speaking Japanese right okay that time the kids we’re long gone okay years later I’m going to get some eating I’m like why speaking English to each other you know I don’t know she’s not Japanese and I started looking at yeah she doesn’t even look Japanese and this is like maybe years years later wow yeah.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well well Takuan I’m gonna take a little break and then when we come back I want to talk uh you tell tell us all about the the third book in your trick all right so okay so we will be right back after just a few messages [Music] and I am so happy that your relationship with your daughter has improved [Music] all right welcome back we are here with Takuan Amaru and we are talking about his trilogy all about his life so Takuan let’s talk about the last book the purple one and why you know why did you choose this just came to my mind and asked me this you you chose the different background covers for your book so that’s green black and purple so first tell us all about purple and then tell us about why you chose the colors or you can even vice versa talk about the colors first whichever.
Takuan Amaru
Okay okay well thank you uh well first I I failed to mention this before the first book is called a pursuing um what was called I’m sorry hip-hop race and pursuing the American dream right so that’s when I’m lost I’m going as a child just trying to figure things out with that’s the green book and I I chose green because I’m playing on the chakra system right um the chakra color so green is the heart chakra and what I was looking for there really was love I was I was trying to learn to love really myself um really looking for that the real essence of not necessarily falling in love but I I think I do that with a couple you know young ladies you know first loves and stuff like that and you know you really can’t love until you learn to love yourself right I don’t want to sound cliche but the the second book and that’s the making of a soldier again that’s when I entered into the military and uh I chose black because it was the unknown right and this is kind of when I was lost and then black also is the color of who can be the unknown it can be uh confusion but it can also be strength right uh you think about the color of of judges uh any any official uh umpires in sports right they always wear black right because they’re showing the authority so becoming a soldier becoming a man I was learning how to you know the qualities that are going to uh be a deal breaker if you don’t know how to do this integrity keeping your word and stuff like that things that the military does teach you and then the third book um which is called quest for Christ consciousness um I chose purple again going back to the chakra colors so purple is when you’re you’re reaching you know the summit you know that’s when you’re reaching that that that consciousness is um above the uh the pineal right good getting to the highest level the seventh chakra and so that is what is symbolized by Christ consciousness during the second book you know when you go into the military in the army especially I was a paratrooper for for a time and so you start really thinking about your mortality in a way that maybe normal people don’t and not only that I was in a deep state of depression again I was confused so I entered into I started going to church now mind you I I never went to church as a child my mother was Buddhist my father was was highly like un unreligious and um so I you know I was seeking God right so I and uh and also again when you have a job where you’re jumping in places in the dark you don’t know what’s going to happen you you think about you know what’s what’s next so I entered into a church but really what I did was there was two young men who were a little older than me they used to walk around and witness and these guys they were always impeccably dressed but they one guy was from Detroit uh one guy was from the Fort Worth area and and you know so they were from around the way so they knew how to talk that talk but they were very very intelligent very articulate I never seen guys like this before um and maybe outside of like the Nation of Islam or something like that anyway when I really hit rock bottom it’s a series of events I seek them out because I saw them doing things or just behaving in a way that you know showing power in a way that they weren’t criminals they weren’t athletes but they walked around and people respected them so as a young man that’s what I was seeking so I went to to get in a relationship with them and they were members of this church so I entered this church and it really really goes well for a while we uh you know I really really learned a lot about um you know the Bible um my relationship with Christ and uh things I really kick out a lot of the negative habits that I have uh but as it goes on some things start happening between the past the pastor started coming at me for tithing and different pressures started happening I ended up getting leaving the church and that in itself is a story not to downplay anything about church this is just this particular situation uh all of this happens during the second and third books the third book which is called again quest for Christ consciousness begins when I’m actually entering the church and this is when I’m in a very very depressed state you know I really thought I didn’t know if I could live for like another week I was just so depressed and these these two young men really take me in and become my older brothers and again a series what happens during that to to bring it to a climax and for me to to end up leaving but that’s the end of the book ends with me going into being accepted into Rutgers University and a series of events that really led to that because you know I had to it was it was just strange because I had to get out I had to get out early and um I was trying to play football and so I had to go up there and actually get in the university and be on the football team not be a candidate as a walk-on and I told and Christ’s conscience just told me no it’s going to happen don’t worry about it and at this time it was things were rolling like I had you could say the golden the Midas touch and everyone’s like that’s impossible you’re not even nobody knows you the coach never saw you but anyway series of events happen I go to this college and I get accepted on a handshake by the dean and the coach handshake accepting on the team and I come back and everyone’s looking at me like I’m crazy you know and that’s how the book basically ends but it just shows this this again this escalation of a kid who was again looking for all the right things to do doing everything the wrong way and then like Mr. Magoo kind of got pushed onto the right path and then like once a kid you know gets the right resources then they we know what to do you know but a lot of kids that they deem as bad or or negative they throw them into the juvenile delinquent pile you know but this if they had resources if they just could see a source of light that seemed viable nobody chooses negativity on its own that’s what I’m trying to say you know like that’s a real message especially for the young people.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Wow wow so um now all of this that you’re talking about happened in the United States yes so why did you why and when did you decide to live in Japan?
Takuan Amaru
Well again going back you know my mother is Japanese and it was saying I’m the youngest so I think I always had a nostalgia with Japan because everyone would talk about Japan like the old country and I remember the least you know about it but I always just felt like I was being called back like that was just in the cards for me and I always talked about it since I was a child um so I didn’t really choose Japan Japan chose me like even when I when I do my interviews people ask me like most you know quote unquote foreigners they like anime or they like uh video games or they like something they want to study the language and all that is great but I don’t really I don’t like anything about Japan like you know it’s I’m Japanese is the reason I I came back it was I it was really more or less more like why I ended up leaving the United States at the time you know doing the research I was doing and stuff and I really really was just dismayed by the again the peculiar system we were under and at the time you know I was under the foolish impression that I could escape the long arm of white supremacy somehow and yeah I I admit it I admit it you know please don’t shoot me down you know I’ve learned and um but when I got here on the ground and then yeah just seeing you know like getting where you fit in because my my my plan was to return I was going to go to law school I had a you know I had I had it set up pretty much to go to law school and that time just never came right it just never came and I realized I really wanted to go into my creative energy to become a writer um I didn’t train to become a writer I so I had to go you know seek editors and seek training programs and I could get paid pennies to get editors to actually you know uh critique my work you know so instead of paying you know for tuition I would get critique and get paid pennies all right.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So how so so you are Afro-Asiatic how are you treated in Japan?
Takuan Amaru
Great question um well Japanese by and large they have there’s two kinds of people and in in my non-fiction book 21st Century Japan Decoded I talk I go in in depth in this if you want to know how Japan is on the ground socially or in the society um there’s two kinds of people in Japan there are Japanese people and other right so and other is if you’re mixed anything you know but there’s a two-way sword with that because Japanese people also have a code that they they and I call it the Yamato code Yamato being an ancient name of Japan um and if you follow the code and following the code also it’s not just your actions and behavior but it’s also kind of your your frequency and vibration and if you can align yourself to it every Japanese person is is required to treat you like a Japanese person it’s kind of strange um they might not think anything I mean they say he’s not that person’s not Japanese whatever whatever but it’s going to almost lock them up and make them treat you in a certain way so to answer your question more directly um I’ve already you know again the book uh 21st Century Japan Decoded I talk about being able to navigate through the society so I think you know when Japanese see me they they I’m I register of course as foreigner right but then when they start to interact with me because of you know just knowledge of the code and being able to adjust you know it it starts becoming kind of skewed and and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not right.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay that that’s uh very interesting so no matter you know I always think that no matter where you go the first thing uh uh in other countries the first thing they see is your color black that’s first and but what you’re saying in Japan if you’re not Japanese you can be other and still and be white.
Takuan Amaru
Um okay I don’t know if I quite understood your your question the color thing is true you can’t get away from that and I would have no I wouldn’t have it any other way but nowadays there are a lot of kids who have grown up in Japan right who are black right they come from African countries some of them are mixed some of them are not and so if you once you see them the way they move the way they you can oh they’re Japanese right and so yeah when Japanese people even see them they’re oh they look foreign but as soon as they start to interact like some of them don’t speak English for example so you have to speak Japanese to them right and um so they don’t know what I am at a certain point right right when they first see you they don’t know no when they first see me clearly they it put me in in the foreign bin right but foreigner is white black arid even Chinese people to you know Japanese people are are foreign right and so it’s just how much you know because again they to them they have the thing that they’re the center of the universe which is really how people kind of every country really sees themselves should see themselves in a kind of right we it derives from us and then we see everything from our perspective right it’s only people who’ve been colonized who now they we start seeing things through other people’s land right right right so Japan even though they’ve been conquered even though the atrocities of World War II which I go over in detail in in uh in in the 21st Century Japan Decoded um they have been able to retain their own self like the identity and awareness because of the the insular nature of their society and the geographical positioning as well but yeah yeah so a lot of there’s positives to that and there are negatives right and and one of the positives for a black person again I I alluded earlier is that they don’t necessarily see you they don’t know of a lot of thug stuff okay unless you come there and display it right so so a lot of times if you come as a black person they’ll think all black people are like you oh yeah you can a lot of times you get to set the tone you know what I’m saying like you don’t you never have to even really go through like a silly conversation about you know any silliness like do you have drugs you know they they might not even think that you know I’m not saying all the time yeah but that’s the positive right that’s the positive like like like for example Trayvon Martin nobody I knew even heard about that okay right I’m not saying that that’s good I’m just saying just how big of a story it was right here yeah around the world around the world but not in Japan yeah and people because I was bringing it up as a topic and nobody knew and so finally I stopped doing it because I was like well why am I going to introduce this trauma I you know usually I I’m going to try to explain it I’m like well we don’t even know about it I’m not going to introduce this this is what happens to black people you know right George Floyd more people knew about that so then I found myself responding to questions but uh yeah you don’t know I’m not I don’t want you to have that image let me show you some of these people that invented some stuff you know.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Exactly exactly exactly wow so a Takuan I like for you to you know I have all different kinds of viewers and what overall message would you like to give the viewers?
Takuan Amaru
Um overall message yeah ah I guess I I think I kind of already said it uh as far as the series of miracles um that we’re all experiencing you shouldn’t really take anything for granted and I know that sounds it’s very cliche and it’s hard to do you know on a consistent basis but yeah we all are here for uh for our own you know unique mission and it’s only until you tap into those series of miracles that it becomes revealed for you right so even like you asking me about why why I came to Japan and I really didn’t you know like Japan kind of claimed me when I came just because again the things that were happening on the ground right um and again oh and another thing about Japan which really really is is great I think is because as a especially as a black person you don’t get harassed by the police number one right um so and there’s really very very low physical danger I’m not saying it’s not danger because Japanese would say it’s a very safe country no and I I go against that there’s physical danger there’s mental there’s mental health physical health right spiritual health there’s different levels of danger so on from a physical level getting mugged murdered or even raped um there’s a little problem with women getting fondled and stuff like that and I’m not trying to uh you know say that that’s not big but you know but for me as a writer like you know I go outside and sometimes I get writer’s block and I just want to go for a walk or something I can be in my thoughts you know when I’m an American I do that same thing and I’m walking out looking around like okay like who’s he okay what’s going on here make sure everybody yeah and I I’m again I’m not trying to throw shade you know you know I love my people in America you know America and you know that’s my roots are there and you know FBA you know all and I need to get back and I’m trying to make ways that can find me in both places I really really you know this is part of me trying to link up with uh you know uh Seller Kirkland and the people doing the uh the the book fair um yes but yeah but it’s a safe space for people who don’t know um there is the metaverse and the soulful Chicago Chicago soulful book fair and if you go to Chicago soulfulbookfair.com you will find out all about the metaverse you can create an avatar you can meet Takuan Amaru in the middle Dr. Jan that’s where we met each other yeah that’s right in the match-up verse so so that’s something new you know you should talk about the metabolism like what the heck is that yeah but Takuan it’s it’s really really great to to really see you well not in person but to see you right yeah yeah avatar yep when people want to get in contact with you and I’m telling you people you need to go to his page and that is Takka and you will see all about who he is and his messages his other books and um you’re fascinated actually.
Takuan Amaru
Thank you very much thank you very much and I really want to thank you for being my guest is and you know I’ve got all these questions in my mind and it seems like an hour goes by so fast but and when Anita says thank you for sharing your story oh wow she’ll be visiting Japan later this year as if not welcome I often wonder how I am perceived in other countries you need a girl you need to look him up please come you know come down we have a whole real talk family shout out to my man Sterling Carol we have a real talk uh we call it real talk a forum we have a bunch of people there a lot of them are um black Japanese or people who you know are interested in in thing matters black you know what I’m saying and this happens in Osaka which is the second biggest city uh I’m in Nagoya which is the third or fourth largest but I often times go to Osaka that’s more where my family is from as well.
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Alrighty so thank you so much so Renita uh look him up girl yo when they see you as a goddess they see you as a goddess I I know sisters who come and the Japanese women they try to copy you and stuff like that yeah it’s yeah it’s kind of yeah so bring bring out your you know you know get stacked and wear your stuff because they’re going to be checking you out they don’t want to they want to feed from the source you know all right so Takuan you have a blessed rest of your day.
Takuan Amaru
Thank you you as well thank you thank you for having me on I really appreciate thank you thank you okay wow this was really great this is so informational and um honestly you really need I’m I’m I’m leaving this here so you can see how you can reach him you need to go to his website uh not I’m sorry not as well yeah it is his website but anyway um I’m gonna leave this up as I go off so you can write it down just in case just in case but I will see you next week actually next week uh will be an encore and um what I’m going to do is just choose one of the guess it might be you Mr. Amaru uh because it was so interesting uh because I’ll be off on a journey so everyone have a beautiful blessed rest of your morning afternoon or evening bye [Music] and I’m still here happens every now and then so I have my closing oh there it is okay now I’m gone see ya [Music] do do [Music]