CNN Exclusive "Ninja History 101"

Morning coffee, bagel…and ninjas on CNN? What a fine way to start a morning.

You Don’t Know Ninjas: 8 New Revelations About the Shadow Warrior

Ninjas are everywhere in our popular culture—they slice up mobsters in movies and fruits on your iPhone. We seem to think it makes sense to compare them to pirates and then think of them fondly as adolescent mutant turtles living in a New York sewer with a kimono-clad rat.

But who are the ninja, really? That’s what John Man, a British travel writer and historian, set out to explore in his new book Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior. He spoke to TIME about the fighters behind the legend.

There are some really interesting items in this article, like this print from the 19th century (1853) showing a ninjer.

…or that a James Bond movie (according to the historian) really started the “ninja boom” in the West…

The Bond movie You Only Live Twice really popularized the idea of ninja among people who are not interested in martial arts.

I’d love to see some bullies with more experience in Japanese martial history to see if they can poke holes in this TIME interview/CNN article…I don’t know, it seems pretty well sourced.

John Man, an expert on Asian history with REAL credentials as a professional historian, digging into the history of Ninjas??

And not a single mention of the Booj in nine pages???

This can only get better, and I think I have a new book to pick up.

I think he’s talking about Hatsumi and the Booj here: “There are masters still in existence who claim to have scrolls that go back to the Middle Ages granting them all sorts of authenticity down the generations, but nobody has seen these scrolls or proved anything about them.”

[QUOTE=xstyle;2758614]I think he’s talking about Hatsumi and the Booj here: “There are masters still in existence who claim to have scrolls that go back to the Middle Ages granting them all sorts of authenticity down the generations, but nobody has seen these scrolls or proved anything about them.”[/QUOTE]

I’m sure Hatsumi is furious.

It’s only been a few years since Hatsumi had a big CNN exclusive about being the “last ninja”, and this historian instead credits a spy-soldier who hid in the jungle for 30 years as being the “Last Ninja”.

Hiroo Onoda, a former Intelligence Officer in Japan’s Imperial Army, hid in the Philippine Jungle for 30 years.

Here is the Baddass of the Week entry on Onada.

This is a REAL fucking ninja:

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/onoda.html

Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese Imperial Army’s Intelligence Division was sent to the Philippine Island of Lubang in 1944 with a top-secret mission - to stay out of sight, collect information on Allied troop movements on the island, launch guerilla attacks, disrupt the enemy and generally just be completely fucking nuts. He took this mission so seriously that he ended up fighting for his life well after everyone else had called it a day and went home. If the delicate line between insanity and badassitude is measured by determination, then Lt. Hiroo is probably high in the running for being one of the most badassed men of World War II.

They survived on rice, coconuts and bananas foraged from the underbrush, and occasionally made daring night raids into town to steal beer and other supplies from peoples’ outdoor fridges.

Thanks, Wabbit. I saw this yesterday morning too and it made me smile.

I have not read his book yet, but it is on my list. I get the impression from the excerpts I’ve read and the interview that he exercises more of the “travel writer” than “historian” in this book. There’s nothing wrong with that, and hopefully it will be an enjoyable read. I also got an opportunity to skim through the bibliography for this book and I was surprised to see so many Antony Cummins books. I guess in this field it’s trading one bad English language source for another.

We’ll see…

[QUOTE=W. Rabbit;2758618]I’m sure Hatsumi is furious.

It’s only been a few years since Hatsumi had a big CNN exclusive about being the “last ninja”, and this historian instead credits a spy-soldier who hid in the jungle for 30 years as being the “Last Ninja”.

[/QUOTE]

Oh, I forgot I wanted to say something about this too.

So there’s no disputing Onoda’s badassery, and apparently he was a graduate of some sort from the Nakano Spy School, but that doesn’t make him a “ninja” any more than a CIA officer is a “ninja.”

I’ve got a couple of books on the Japanese espionage efforts during World War II, including one specifically on the Nakano School, and (big surprise…) there’s no Ninjutsu Ryuha in sight anywhere. In fact, it appears the Nakano School was a deliberate effort to introduce Western concepts of military intelligence into the Japanese military – not retread any traditional Japanese methods.

I would not consider myself an expert on World War II Japanese intelligence training; I’m giving the proverbial, “I read a couple of books… once… a while ago.” However, my reading was searching for any possible links to old Ninjutsu methods, and beyond the general “well, they’re all spies,” I didn’t find any.

[QUOTE=Styygens;2759001]Oh, I forgot I wanted to say something about this too.

So there’s no disputing Onoda’s badassery, and apparently he was a graduate of some sort from the Nakano Spy School, but that doesn’t make him a “ninja” any more than a CIA officer is a “ninja.”[/QUOTE]

Yeah I agree Man is a reaching a little with that one, but he did say he was sure others would disagree with him. Bullshido to the rescue, keeping it real yet again.

Anyway, everyone knows all the CIA’s REAL ninjas are humble data miners:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/11/09/yes-the-cias-ninja-librarians-are-tracking-twitter-and-facebook-as-they-should/

[QUOTE=W. Rabbit;2758618]I’m sure Hatsumi is furious.

It’s only been a few years since Hatsumi had a big CNN exclusive about being the “last ninja”, and this historian instead credits a spy-soldier who hid in the jungle for 30 years as being the “Last Ninja”.

[/QUOTE]Hatsumi is a poser and an opportunist. Onoda is a real fucking warrior and although he isn’t a Ninja, he is still a badass. I’m sure he doesn’t believe in Ninjers, The Easter Bunny or Santa Claus either.

They found this guy pretty close to where i used to live:

http://www.jeffspiratescove.com/yokoi.htm

I prefer my Ninja based on fiction and pop culture, hence all my knowledge about them comes from TV tropes.

For example: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu

For those not familiar with TV tropes it’s like the Wikipedia of Fiction and popculture giving you the who, what, why, when and how of Fiction.

I doubt Soke Hatsumi feels one way or another about a Western “documentary” on ninjas. It seems the program deals with historical ninjas, not theoretical ones.

Ninjutsu would have been taught by a samurai. There would be nothing to distinguish “ninjutsu” from any other kind of special training. By the time WW2 rolled around, there were damn few samurai left, and probably damn few of those used a weapon in anger. After the war, those participants that contributed to the war effort felt disgraced. Seiko Fujita is the only one that comes to mind, though surely there were others.

I’ll be damned if this really deserves it’s very own thread, so I’ll just stick it onto this thread like Eeyore’s tail…

io9’s 10 White People Who Inexplicably Became Ninjas

http://io9.com/10-white-people-who-inexplicably-became-ninjas-458378221

Lucinda Dickey from Ninja III should have been #1.

[QUOTE=Styygens;2759001]
I’ve got a couple of books on the Japanese espionage efforts during World War II, including one specifically on the Nakano School, and (big surprise…) there’s no Ninjutsu Ryuha in sight anywhere. In fact, it appears the Nakano School was a deliberate effort to introduce Western concepts of military intelligence into the Japanese military – not retread any traditional Japanese methods.
[/QUOTE]

Seiko Fujita is the only person that comes to mind as “teaching ninjutsu” in an official capacity during World War Two. Even, so, if they were teaching Western concepts at Nakano, Onada wouldn’t have an opinion on ninjutsu. He was never exposed to it.

The survivors of the war wanted to distance themselves from anything resembling the kind of militaristic BS that got them into the war in the first place. It’s only later, when writers like Mishima were looking for some kind of national identity, do you see the kind of reverence shown to bushido.

There’s a problem presented when you mix condemnation of Bujinkan with historical ninjutsu. Ninjutsu was not a martial art, at least in terms of hand to hand combat. It was training in meterology, human behavior, disguise…the things that Onada probably WAS trained in, like any other specialized military or intelligence training. First it was used to gain the upper hand in battle, later to keep the Shogun in power. By the time WW2 roles around, any living ninja would have been removed from Nobunaga by several hundred years. It was always about collecting information, first and foremost. The other aspects would have been supplanted by Western practices, because the Japanese copied Western military equipment and training to some extent.

Hatsumi has his own gig going. If this article ignores him, it’s only making people MORE interested in what he has to offer. In Japan, ninjas are old wive’s tales. And Hatsumi does not want to be associated with some equivalent of the Waffen SS hiding out in Indochina or Argentina. Japanese tend to reject the king of mentality that resulted in nuclear weapons being dropped on their country.

[QUOTE=vaquero de las nalgas;2765764]Ninjutsu would have been taught by a samurai. There would be nothing to distinguish “ninjutsu” from any other kind of special training.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=vaquero de las nalgas;2779871]Ninjutsu was not a martial art, at least in terms of hand to hand combat. It was training in meterology, human behavior, disguise…the things that Onada probably WAS trained in, like any other specialized military or intelligence training.[/QUOTE]

Years ago, before I got into martial arts, I read Stephen Turnbull’s book on ninjas. I have since become aware that Turnbull is a notorious sensationalist whose work is rarely peer-reviewed before it is published. To Turnbull’s credit, though, his book says pretty much what Vaquero says here: that ninjas were guerillas, and that “ninjutsu” was stuff like swimming, climbing walls, camouflage, etc. He makes no mention of a specific ninja martial arts tradition, and observes as Vaquero does that ninjas were trained by samurai, who would have followed their own (non-secret) martial arts tradition.

If attacking civilians and police makes onoda a badass, I seriously think we should be rethinking the definition of that term

[QUOTE=OwlMatt;2780281]Years ago, before I got into martial arts, I read Stephen Turnbull’s book on ninjas. I have since become aware that Turnbull is a notorious sensationalist whose work is rarely peer-reviewed before it is published. [/QUOTE]

I think “sensationalist” might be a little strong… Have you seen some of the other authors publishing on the same topics?

[QUOTE=evilstan;2780325]If attacking civilians and police makes onoda a badass, I seriously think we should be rethinking the definition of that term[/QUOTE]

Well, going purely from the section in Man’s Ninja book (and, admittedly, this relied mostly on Onoda’s memoirs), it seemed that most of the time, the civilians or police attacked Onoda first. He believed he was acting as an unconventional warfare soldier waging a guerilla war.

When he finally surrendered honorably, he returned home. He moved to Brazil for a few years to escape the notoriety and owned a cattle ranch before returning to Japan and opening a children’s educational camp teaching (what else?) woodcraft, nature and survival skills. I don’t get the impression he was a bloodthirsty war criminal. I think “badass” refers to his commitment to duty, his tenacity in carrying out his assigned mission, his skill at survival, and the toughness required to live in the jungle.

He’s still alive, BTW, so if you really want to question his intentions during his 33-year war, I’m sure you can contact him through his camp organization.

Speaking of covert WW2 tales of the Philippines:

Filipino nationals and Americans were fighting the Japanese as well, on account of the PI being ruled by America at the time due to the Spanish American war. Among them was Sergeant Leo Giron (Filipino American). The DBMA Grandfathers Speak video features him telling a few stories about this time. One was that they’d sneak into Japanese bases in the jungle and puncture their food tins with a very tiny hole, so they’d spoil and everyone would get the shits. He also recounts a story about fighting a man bolo vs katana (and a third guy with a bayonet that was dealt with by someone else).

Pretty ninja stuff.

Truer words could not be spoken. For very good ninja book there are ten bad ones.

Turnbull has solid academic credentials. He stuck to the historic record, as much as he could. Kacem Zoughari did a decent job until the last couple of chapters of his book…

Antony Cummins, well, he seems to have a chip on his shoulder and refuses to footnote his work, which I find astonishing for someone with an MA.

The most recent Shoninki translation by Donald Roley is pretty good so far.