Charles Edward Merriam, the 37th President of the United States, Official Presidential Portrait
The Poisoned Chalice
Upon taking the presidential oath of office after the resignation of President Alvin York, Charles Edward Merriam found himself at the helm of a rudderless ship. Civil unrest was at an all-time high due to mass protests against York’s preemptive nuclear strike and large-scale labor strikes, much of the cabinet had been left vacant by a wave of resignations following York’s controversial decision not to consult his own advisors on the decision, and an already uneasy economy had been thrown into chaos by the total obliteration of a major trading partner. Even the sky itself had visibly darkened while global temperatures dropped, bringing about cries of the end times being visited upon Earth for man’s folly. In this moment of national crisis, Merriam took to the airwaves with a radio address to the American people asking them to unite with him in a national effort for the first 100 days of his presidency to right the course of the country amidst the national crisis.
Moving with alacrity to fill the vacancies within his cabinet and bring his administration into full gear, Merriam leaned upon his network of academic contacts to appoint a ring of economic, industrial, and social science experts — Jacob Viner, Bessie Louise Pierce, George W. Taylor, and Leo Wolman — into several key cabinet positions. Similarly, rather than appoint a political operative as his Secretary of State or War, he instead chose to elevate career diplomat and acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew into his position permanently while promoting War Department General Counsel William Marbury Jr. to be Secretary of War. Finding both Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal and Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones to be highly competent and sufficiently disentangled from the chaos of the York administration, Merriam requested that the pair remain in their positions. However, Postmaster General Thomas Perkins Henderson would not be so lucky, as Merriam distrusted his close ties to President York and felt the office was wracked by cronyism, thus requesting his immediate resignation to be replaced with former Louisiana Governor and highly regarded reformist Sam H. Jones. To round out his cabinet, Merriam appointed California Governor Earl Warren as his Attorney General due to Warren’s wealth of experience in suppressing syndicalist insurrectionists in his home state, as well as Delaware Senator and businessman J. Allen Frear to manage the Department of the Interior with an eye towards economizing a bloated department.
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Secretary of State Joseph Grew, a defining member of the Merriam administration with his foreign policy expertise during the world’s darkest hour.
Calming a Roiling Sea
Believing that anxiety surrounding a national economy plagued by boundless problems was at the root of the national malaise that might yet inspire a resurgence of syndicalism, Merriam quickly moved to restore confidence for both consumers and businesses. As a first step to move past the combative relationships that President Hughes and York held with organized labor, Merriam invited newly minted American Federation of Labor President George Meany for a symbolic meeting to discuss labor issues and establish an informal political alliance to raise wages and working standards as a means to settle the persistent labor unrest. Thus, President Merriam and his Secretary of Labor George W. Taylor began applying the National Labor Arbitration Act to settle hundreds of strikes across the country resulting in a moderate nationwide increase in wage levels and the proliferation of employer-provided healthcare as a commonly provided benefit. Taylor even proved successful in earning the begrudging respect of Congress of Industrial Organizations President Walter Reuther’s respect despite the organization’s more explicitly confrontational approach to industrial relations.
Despite this success in the application of labor arbitration, Merriam’s ambition of comprehensive legislation to establish a formal system of corporatist economic structures was repeatedly frustrated by the inability to secure enough bipartisan support in the House of Representatives to pass several successive iterations of his proposals. Yet as a longtime proponent of executive power, Merriam was not entirely thwarted by this setback and notably issued an Executive Order forming the Office of National Research headed by MIT President Karl T. Compton and complemented by a number of figures in both the natural and social sciences to direct national research efforts towards answering pressing questions of the new atomic age. Perhaps the most significant of its achievements were the pioneering of new sanitation, public health, and antibiotic techniques to finally stamp out the bubonic plague epidemic that had persisted since the initial Japanese bioweapon attack. Furthermore, Speaker of the House Wright Patman was successful in passing a budget through the House substantially scaling back wartime spending and taxation in light of the transition of the United States military from a combat force to an occupation force abroad. Anticipating a corresponding decrease in inflation, Merriam worked with his Secretary of Commerce Leo Wolman to begin the process of relieving wartime price controls that had remained in place throughout the York administration while encouraging the development of private industrial codes of conduct for businesses to self-regulate prices.
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A wartime propaganda poster supporting labor arbitration that continued distribution under the Merriam presidency.
Sewing A Tattered World
America was not the only country suffering in the aftermath of the Second World War. The decade-long war had wreaked havoc upon the entire world and left entire nations virtually leveled by bombs and depleted of their resources. American efforts at international reconstruction had been haphazard and largely left in the hands of private charities during the York administration, much to the consternation of its allies and the occupied peoples. Thus, out of a mixture of humanitarian reasons, a desire to restore America’s international reputation, and a calculation that such destruction could breed communist movements such as the syndicalist revolt that had embroiled the United States, Secretary of State Joseph Grew proposed a much more ambitious plan that would soon bear his name. With the strong support of President Merriam, Congress earmarked a staggering $15 billion with wide bipartisan support to be distributed to European governments for necessary imports of food and basic materials from the United States as well as for industrial investments to rebuild the European economy. An ancillary fund was likewise also established to support the reconstruction of China, which had been ravaged by brutal warfare with Imperial Japan. As a committed supporter of free trade, President Merriam also used the leverage of the Grew Plan to compel the recipients of the funding to lower trade barriers between one another and with the United States in order to stimulate international trade. The sole major holdout would be the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan remained committed to an autarkic system of steep trade barriers outside the Imperial system since the country had suffered far less damage than its peers in the Second World War.
Another guiding principle of President Merriam’s approach to international reconstruction would be a wide-ranging program of technical assistance. With the country’s decades-long commitment to widely available public education and a sophisticated network of universities engaged in industrial research, the American economy had come to be regarded as the most technologically advanced in the entire world. Already under President Dewey, the United States had begun programs of sharing its technical expertise in production methods and industrial organization to China and the countries of Latin America. Thus, Merriam’s formalization of an Office for Technical Assistance under the Department of State was an extension of an already well-established practice. With support from personnel and agencies in the Departments of Labor and Commerce, the Office of Technical Assistance undertook a wide-ranging and sophisticated statistical analysis of European industries to identify weaknesses in productivity while arranging for large-scale observation visits by European industrial leaders as well as the collation and distribution of technical literature in order to disseminate best practices across continents. Following the initial success of the program in Europe over the first months of his term, Merriam proceeded with an extension of the program to developing nations in the Middle East and South Asia in order to modernize their economies as well.
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A meeting of Grew Plan information chiefs in the American Embassy in France.
Year Without Summer
While atomic weapons had been deployed several times throughout the Second World War to destroy French, Russian, and Japanese cities, they had never been used on the scale ordered by President Alvin York to destroy the German Empire. As a result of the simultaneous destruction of dozens of German cities in fiery infernos, the atmosphere of the planet itself became choked by a layer of ash and soot that demonstrably lowered global temperatures in the following months. With the effect coined as a “nuclear winter” by British chemist Samuel Glasstone, a world food supply already challenged by the disruptions of war experienced a dramatic shortfall in agricultural production sending many war-ravaged areas teetering into famine. However, this presented a unique opportunity for the United States, which had for decades struggled with chronic overproduction of agricultural products causing dim economic prospects for the nation’s farmers. Now, there was a ready market for the surplus in the United States that persisted even through the nuclear winter.
Though European governments were already using their Grew Plan funds to import American food products in large amounts, Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones was determined to employ the powers of the federal government in assistance of this shift. Backed by a series of executive orders from President Merriam, Jones vastly expanded the neglected Populist-era Sub-Treasury system to grant easy credit and storage solutions to farmers who lacked sufficient capital to take advantage of the vastly increased demand for their product while also using wartime legislation to purchase eroded land for its rehabilitation and resale for food production by government experts. Much like the rest of the executive branch, at Merriam’s direction the Department of Agriculture also leaned into partnerships with dozens of agricultural colleges spread throughout the United States to collect and publish a corpus of literature on improved farming practices and fertilizer production techniques to further stimulate production.
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Electrical lines going up on a rural farm as part of a program pioneered by Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones to further develop American agriculture.
New World Order
Having earned widespread popularity among the American public for his statesmanship at home and thus leaving the November elections with a decisive popular mandate, Merriam turned to the pressing issue of foreign affairs in the latter half of his term. In the chaos of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath, the powers of the Grand Alliance had failed to conclusively agree on the structures of the post-war world. Even after the destruction of the German Empire, which had been the largest obstacle in the effort to conclude new international agreements, debate raged on what form these would take as the world federalist movement took root across the globe. In order to lay the foundation of future global cooperation, Merriam began by reviving the institutions of the Hague Treaty that had been rendered inoperative by the withdrawal of participation by several countries and subsequent outbreak of the Second World War. While the Permanent Court of International Arbitration would be restored largely unchanged from its original construction, the International Monetary Fund would be greatly transformed due to President Merriam’s influential support for John Maynard Keynes’s proposal to formulate a supranational currency called “bancor” to be the unit of account for an International Clearing Union tasked with regulating international trade.
While many nationalists and isolationists decried Merriam’s move towards the internationalization of monetary policy, the circle of Atlanticists within the party led by Vice President Edward J. Meeman was urging him to go even further towards world government. Compelled by a promise made to the Atlanticist faction during his party’s National Convention, President Merriam authorized the summoning of an international conference to discuss the concept of an Atlantic Union between the western democratic countries of the world. However, where many expected that Merriam might appoint a coterie of apathetic diplomats to undermine the movement, the President instead shockingly sent a delegation filled with committed Atlanticists led by New York Senator Grenville Clark, Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, and the proposal’s first author Clarence Streit to Brussels for the conference, much to the outrage of opponents of world federalism within his party. After weeks spent deliberating the minutiae of the Atlantic Union, the conference emerged just before the holiday season with a proposed constitution and hundreds of pages of documentation surrounding the historical precedents and contemporary reasoning behind the proposal to electrify the debate surrounding a world government.
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A Time Magazine feature of Clarence Streit, one of the leading theorists behind the Atlantic Union proposal.
God’s Instrument or War Criminal?
The most controversial question hanging over the term of President Charles Edward Merriam was the fate of former President Alvin York. To many Americans, York had committed a crime against humanity comparable to those against which they had fought against for a decade and the incident ignited a debate surrounding presidential authority to deploy nuclear weapons. Throughout the initial months of his presidency, Merriam dodged questions surrounding the President and declined to make substantial public comment aside from occasional suggestions that the President had sole command over the United States military. At Merriam’s private urging, Speaker of the House Wright Patman also squashed suggestions that a President could still be impeached after leaving office. Likewise, Merriam directed the Justice Department not to open a federal prosecution against York and thus leaving the ailing former President’s case in legal limbo. Speaking out more strongly after his successful reelection campaign, Merriam clarified that while he found the act personally abhorrent it remained a legal exercise of the President’s powers as commander-in-chief and that as the victims were nationals of another country there was no basis for either a prosecution or a pardon in the name of crimes against the United States.
Beyond just the conduct of the President himself, the atomic bombing of Germany brought with it new concern around the governance of nuclear weapons. Believing that tight-lipped military control over nuclear weapons under wartime authority was a large factor in York’s ability to unilaterally strike Germany, the Senate’s sole independent Brien McMahon led the charge to place nuclear weapons and energy development under the control of an independent civilian commission appointed by both the President and the legislative officers. Though his bill died in committee, it inspired the Federalist Reform Party to counter with their own bill introduced by Kentucky Senator Andrew J. May replacing McMahon’s proposed commission with a board to be dominated by military officers exclusively appointed by the President. While the Federalist Reform majority in the Senate quickly passed the May bill over an attempted filibuster by McMahon, the bill came to a screeching halt in the House of Representatives where the opposition parties unified to fiercely oppose its passage. With Congress at an impasse, President Merriam issued executive orders continuing the status quo of the wartime project board that had been initiated by President Howard Hughes.
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Independent Connecticut Senator Brien McMahon, who took leadership of the fight for civilian control over nuclear energy
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Note: Not strictly bound by Merriam’s term, the following sections are meant to summarize the state of the world after the conclusion of the Second World War.
The Red Stars of Europe
Throughout the decade-spanning Second World War, the United Kingdom had been under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Duff Cooper. In order to maintain control against the irascible anti-war opposition led by Labour’s Oswald Mosley, Cooper had resorted to the royal authority of King Edward VIII to unilaterally bring the country into the war and cancel elections throughout its duration. While he had been successful in prosecuting the war to victory and securing the downfall of Mosley’s control over the Labour Party, when Cooper was finally forced to call elections at the war’s end he found voters profoundly unsympathetic to his accomplishments and his Tory government was defeated in a staggering landslide by the Labour Party. Thus, King Edward was reluctantly forced to appoint the Labour Party leader, Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, as the Prime Minister of the country. As an ally to former party leader Oswald Mosley, Bevan quickly embarked on the domestic implementation of the “Mosley Memorandum” to nationalize wide stretches of the British economy while also pursuing a massive expansion of the British welfare state. Following the atomic bombing of the German Empire, Bevan forcefully attacked the wanton use of weapons of mass destruction in a surprise attack and relations remained frosty even after York’s resignation as President Merriam cut off the United Kingdom from any knowledge sharing regarding nuclear power and weaponry.
Yet even the radicalism of Nye Bevan paled in comparison to that of the Spanish Republic, where a blossoming social and economic revolution was years underway. Following the victory of the leftist Republic against Nationalist forces in the country’s civil war, thanks in no small part to the decisive support of President Frank J. Hayes, agriculture was rapidly collectivized by the Spanish government while a combination of state support and syndicalist initiative led to over 75% of the industrial economy being brought under worker control. Taking inspiration from the writings and political efforts of American President John Dewey, the Spanish also imported many of his principles of progressive child-centric education while undertaking the community construction of centers of adult learning woven into forums of political debate. However, standing in stark contrast to the system of government on the mainland would be the so-called “Spanish State” existing in Spain’s African colonies. With their heavy conservative military presence, the colonies had formed a powerbase for the Spanish Nationalists and thus served as a natural place of refuge after their defeat in the war, while the socialist Republican government held little interest in reconquering a system of colonies that it found morally repugnant. Thus, the colonies became the host of a rival government and ruthless colonial state that came under the leadership of Falangist Agustin Aznar after he successfully orchestrated the murder of his political rivals to become the Jefe Nacional.
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Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan of the United Kingdom, the sole power offering a serious challenge to American hegemony over the post-war world.
Integralism Lives?
After the surrenders of the Kingdoms of France and Italy during the Second World War, the Allied powers were too pressed for manpower in their colossal struggle against Russia and Japan in the East to administer a full military occupation. Thus, instead the administration of Howard Hughes accepted the continuation of their governments so long as they cooperated with American occupation authorities. As a result, Italian Integralism and its monarchy would continue under the auspices of General Pietro Badoglio who was vested by King Victor Emmanuel III and the Grand Council of Fascism as Italy’s new prime minister after the downfall of Benito Mussolini. However, Badoglio’s position would become increasingly unstable after the large-scale effort of the German Empire to fund and arm leftist Italian insurgents and increasingly dependent upon the United States occupation forces for support to avert their overthrow. While France would likewise retain its newly crowned King Henri VI, his political strategy would be markedly different from that of the Italians. Believing that the monarchist right would have no choice but to support him, Henri appointed socialist Vincent Auriol as his Prime Minister and issued a new liberal constitution to endear the political left to him as well. Final peace treaties with both countries, forced to be renegotiated after the destruction of the German Empire, would not yet be concluded by the end of President Merriam’s first term though the recognition of separatist movements in Brittany and Corsica was viewed as an implicit precondition by the American government.
As the political and military leadership of the German Empire had been devastated by the atomic bombings, the continuance of the Kaiserreich was not only seen as undesirable by President Alvin York but also simply impractical. Although York would not be able to oversee the country past its initial occupation, President Merriam held much the same opinion and negotiated the de jure abolition of the German Empire alongside the British and divided the country into two zones of occupation. Though relying on the expertise of the limited number of German experts who were both still alive and willing to cooperate with the occupation authorities, much of the day-to-day administration of the occupation zones would be carried out by the military forces of the occupying powers. Yet while the occupying forces made great strides in repairing the utterly destroyed nations and stabilizing its food supply, the occupation faced never before seen challenges with enormous incidence rates of cancer and a newly identified “atomic bomb disease” with poorly understood symptoms and little understanding of its treatment.
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King Henri and Queen Isabelle of France, wearing a more austere style in an appeal to the French working class.
Blood Tide of the East
After Russia’s humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1934-1935, the country slipped into a dark period of brutal dictatorship at the hands of Anastasy Vonsyatsky and Ivan Solonevich. Yet few could have imagined that the horror could grow worse. The employment of strategic bombing against its crucial oil supply, the nuclear bombing of several of its cities, and worst of all an enormous anthrax attack targeted at its food supply caused the disintegration of Russia into famine and anarchy. As the powers of the Grand Alliance had declared victory and withdrew their troops from active fighting upon the surrender of Andrew Vlasov’s warlord band to western forces, the turmoil in Russia remained raging throughout President Merriam’s term with little outside intervention. Forces ranged from the claimed Romanov regent Mikhail Drozdovsky to the classical Integralist Boris Savinkov to the bloodthirsty racialist Bronislav Kaminski and dozens more in between fighting for the desiccated scraps of the once mighty country.
Ever vigilant on the frontier of this anarchy was the Reichskommissariat Muskowien, the former German puppet state instated by the Kaiser to facilitate the colonization of occupied Russian lands by German settlers. After its Reichskommissar was killed during the nuclear attack while visiting Berlin, his secretary Erich Koch seized control alongside a junta of military officers proclaiming the Reichskommissariat as a haven for the German people and embarking on a program of ethnic cleansing of the local Slavic population. Fearing that a military response would not only require another costly and unpopular war in Europe but also embroil the United States in the Russian frontier, President Merriam opted to continue the York administration’s position of withholding recognition from the Reichskommissariat while instead extending American influence in Eastern Europe under the auspices of his newly formed Office of Strategic Services.
With the German puppet governments in the Baltics, Poland, and Ukraine deeply unpopular and dependent on German support, their governments quickly collapsed under American and British influence leading to the establishment of new governments in each of the nations. Taking inspiration from the British program to unify the three Baltic nations under a single Baltic Union, President Merriam undertook a nation-building program of his own to attempt to unify Poland, Ukraine, and Romania into a single federation. However, the project remained stalled throughout his term due to a lack of enthusiasm from the member countries. Meanwhile, in an accord with the countries of the Grand Alliance, President Merriam and Secretary of State Joseph Grew took to settling the geopolitical situation of the Balkans. With the restoration of the Tsardom of Bulgaria already settled and Greece still preoccupied by civil war, the chief question would be the status of the former Triune. Striving for a balance between the competing claims of Austria and Hungary which had spiraled the world into war ten long years before, Grew negotiated the formation of a Danubian Confederation to replace the former Triune with substantial autonomy granted to the Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Hungarian, Croatian, Triestine, and Austrian states composing it but unifying them with a common citizenship and foreign policy.
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The ruins of what was once a Russian home, a testament to the country’s seemingly interminable anarchy.
Self-Determination For Whom?
Over the course of the Second World War, British and American forces had come to occupy virtually all of the vast continent of Africa and with the end of the war it fell upon them to oversee its fate. With the recent independence of the United States of the Congo under President Alvin York serving as an example, both President Charles Edward Merriam and British Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan were committed to the eventual decolonization of the African continent but they also agreed that the bulk of the diverse African peoples needed further “instruction” on democratic governance and western culture before being granted independence. Thus, the colonial system of rule remained largely unchanged on the continent, though German colonies would be transferred to the United Kingdom as trust territories and French and Italian colonies remained occupied until the settlement of a final peace treaty. The sole exception came in the German colony of Tanganyika, where former German Ambassador to the United Kingdom Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck escaped the destruction of his home in Bremen through a chance visit to his former Askari soldiers and worked with a group of veterans to proclaim a biracial Republic of Tanganyika in the aftermath of the German Empire’s destruction. Recalling Lettow-Vorbeck’s famous guerilla warfare campaign in the First World War, both the United Kingdom and the United States begrudgingly recognized this new African Republic.
Though the British were slow to release their colonies in Africa, the immense pressure building up within India could not be contained any longer as the Indian National Congress refused to tolerate the continuation of the home rule status quo. Thanks in large part to the close personal relationship of Prime Minister Bevan and Indian nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru, negotiations proceeded smoothly albeit without significant consultation of Muslim authorities that Nehru had clashed with previously. In the final agreement, India was granted independent Dominion status within the British Empire as a united polity and quickly forced the remaining princely states to comply. Under pressure of a possibly violent revolt in Burma, Bevan also pressed for an act to give independence to the Union of Burma soon thereafter. Even less consent from the colonizing power was required for the Indochinese Federation under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, which had already successfully cast off both French rule and a later Japanese invasion. Though cautious of Ho Chi Minh’s socialist principles, President Merriam and Secretary Grew remained concerned about the more dangerous Marxist-Hansenist opposition in the country and decided to recognize his leadership to bolster his position against the radicals. This anti-colonialist streak would also extend itself to Indonesia, where American troops were instructed not to turn the country over to the former Dutch colonial administrators and instead support the independence movement to foster a loyal American ally in Southeast Asia.
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An independence procession in the newly formed Dominion of India.
Democracy in the Far East
Ever since the fateful day in 1939 when the United States declared war upon Japan, the Tiger of the East had become entrenched in the minds of the American people as their mortal enemy. Yet even despite cries for the execution of Emperor Hirohito and the visitation of revenge upon the Japanese people among the public, cooler heads prevailed in the State Department. The initial stages of Japan’s occupation were overseen by President Alvin York, who magnanimously saw Japan as a country that ought to be reformed rather than punished. Pressing for the shattering of its culture of militarism, the installation of structures of democracy, and even the Christianization of the nation, York’s program for the occupation proved massively influential for the future state of the country. Yet it would be President Charles Edward Merriam, eager to draw down United States military commitments, who would finish the process and finalize the treaty with Japan. Among the provisions of the treaty were the independence of Hawaii as a republic under American influence, the annexation of several Pacific islands including the Ryukyu Islands to serve as American naval installations, the placement of the remaining Pacific islands into trust territories, and the total demilitarization of Japan under a democratic system.
The presidency of Tasker H. Bliss had ushered in a special relationship between the United States and China that had persisted for the next twenty years. Yet under President Charles Edward Merriam, it had begun to fray. Upon hearing reports of American aid dollars being embezzled by the Chiang Kai-Shek administration for lavish personal corruption and believing Chiang to be a fundamentally self-interested and unreliable ally, Merriam quickly soured upon the Chinese Premier. Yet with the death of Vice Premier Feng Yuxiang, the opposition to Chiang remained too scattered for there to be any viable alternative. Thus, Merriam began maneuvering to install a set of new East Asian allies to reduce the monolithic power of China in the region. Chief among these was the Republic of Manchuria, which had been declared by a multi-ethnic group of local leaders seeking to avoid Chinese domination and given patronage by both Presidents York and Merriam. A further spite to Chiang would come with President Merriam’s support of the declaration of Taiwanese independence by Lei Chen, as the island had remained occupied by United States Marines after the end of the war. Despite these affronts, tensions between China and the United States were somewhat assuaged by American support for the return of French Yunnan, British Canton, Japanese Fujian, and Japanese Shandong to the Chinese Republic.
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A woman voting in Japan’s first free and fair elections in decades.
World Revolution, of Two Sorts
During the Great Depression, the Dominion of Newfoundland found itself in total collapse and was forced to surrender its independence back to its colonial overlord in the United Kingdom. Yet the war years remained hard for the Dominion and its people remained deeply unsatisfied with its governmental arrangement. As the concept of the Atlantic Union spread through the world with the impending end of the Second World War, a local movement under the leadership of Chesley Crosbie began preaching for a declaration of independence and subsequent application for United States statehood as a demonstration of support for the Atlanticist concept. Though initially dismissed as a fringe movement, a rapid growth of support led the Atlantic Union Party to carry independence to victory in a 1948 referendum. A subsequent victory in the first elections of the Dominion brought the Atlantic Union Party into power and it made its application for American statehood shortly thereafter. Once again angering the anti-Atlanticist section of the party, President Merriam urged that statehood be introduced as a joint resolution of the House and Senate, which ensured its passage even despite the opposition of a critical bloc of Senators who may have made a regular treaty ratification impossible. Yet a similar attempt at statehood for the island of Sicily would be blocked by Merriam, who argued that the referendum used for its justification was illegitimate due to an opposition boycott.
Long suffering under the neo-colonialism of their former colonial masters in France and a newer clique of German elites dominating the local economy, the nation of Haiti became a hotbed for the ideology of Marxism-Hansenism, which preached a violent and permanent world revolution to secure control of the means of production under the democratic management of the workers. After succeeding in its own revolution to overthrow the capitalist class, Haiti became a haven for Hansenists across the Americas seeking to plot their own revolutions by supporting them with revolutionary praxis, arms, and propaganda. After the outbreak of a revolution in Cuba, President Merriam recognized the threat that Haiti posed to the stability of the Americas and ordered the imposition of trade sanctions to strangle the suspected flow of funds and materiel from American Hansenists to the island. Furthermore, Secretary of State Joseph Grew orchestrated a vote in the International Association of American States to expel revolutionary Haiti from the organization due to its support for world revolution and undermining the government of other member states.
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Map of the world by the end of President Charles Edward Merriam’s first term in 1949. Credit and many thanks to Some_Pole for helping create the map!
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In the following I will be compiling the absolutely phenomenal work of u/ParallelPain from AskHistorians on this topic throughout the last years and most recent events. Important to note is that this user is (as it seems) capable of basic Japanese linguistics and is mainly referring to primary sources, tracking down almost ALL publicly accessible entries of Yasuke, readily engaging in any type of communication related to this topic.

TL;DR AT THE BOTTOM!

All credits go to them, but they have not yet made their own post except for comprehensive replies.
Databases they are mainly referring to, entries of the Maeda Clan from the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo and generally the publicly accessible Japanese database.
Structure: Frequently asked [Q/C] question / claim followed by an [A/R] answer / response

[C] "A stipend could've been given to anyone"

[R]

Since the last time I posted about this, I went to track down the entry of Yasuke in the Maeda Clan version of the Shinchōkōki. Kaneko Hiraku (professor at the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, the most prestigious historical research institution in Japan) includes in his book below, paired with the translation in Thomas Lockley's book (which is correct):

然に彼黒坊被成御扶持、名をハ号弥助と、さや巻之のし付幷私宅等迄被仰付、依時御道具なともたさせられ候、 This black man called Yasuke was given a stipend, a private residence, etc., and was given a short sword with a decorative sheath. He is sometimes seen in the role of weapon bearer.

Ever since previously people have been arguing with me that "stipend" could be given to anyone, not just samurai, without considering the word’s meaning in Japanese. I have already mentioned how the word was used in Japanese history. Let’s look then specifically at how Ōta Gyūichi, the author of the chronicles, used it. Here are all the other entries that mention the word "stipend" (specifically 扶持), each with link to the exact page of the Shinchōkōki. I will also quote the translation by J. P. Lamers, so this time the translation is academically published.

1. Shiba Yoshikane in 1553 – son of the previous and soon to be the next de jure lord of Owari, before Nobunaga ran him out of town.

若武衛様は川狩より直にゆかたひらのあたてにて信長を御憑み候て那古野へ御出すなはち貳百人扶持被仰付天王坊に置申され候 Lord Buei the Younger fled directly from his fishing spot on the river to Nagoya, dressed only in a bathrobe, to call on Nobunaga’s help. Accordingly, Nobunaga assigned him a stipend sufficient to maintain a retinue of two hundred men and installed him in the Tennōbō temple.

2. Saitō Dōsan. Recent research suggest this story is inaccurate, but I’m just demonstrating how Ōta Gyūichi uses the word.

斎藤山城道三は元來山城國西岡の松波と云者也一年下國候て美濃國長井藤左衛門を憑み扶持を請余力をも付られ候 The original family name of Saitō Yamashiro Dōsan was Matsunami. He was a native of the Western Hills of Yamashiro Province. One year, he left the Kyoto area for the provinces and called on the help of Nagai Tōzaemon of Mino, who granted him a stipend and assigned auxiliaries to him.

3. Nobunaga remonstrating Ashikaga Yoshiaki in 1573 for not giving out stipend properly.

一 諸侯の衆方々御届申忠節無踈略輩には似相の御恩賞不被宛行今々の指者にもあらさるには被加御扶持候さ樣に候ては忠不忠も不入に罷成候諸人のおもはく不可然事 Item [3] You have failed to make appropriate awards to a number of lords who have attended you faithfully and have never been remiss in their loyal service to you. Instead, you have awarded stipends to newcomers with nothing much to their credit. That being so, the distinction between loyal and disloyal becomes irrelevant. In people’s opinion, this is improper. ... 一 無恙致奉公何の科も御座候はね共不被加御扶助京都の堪忍不屆者共信長にたより歎申候定て私言上候はゝ何そ御憐も可在之かと存候ての事候間且は不便に存知且は公儀御爲と存候て御扶持の義申上候ヘ共一人も無御許容候餘文緊なる御諚共候間其身に對しても無面目存候勸(觀歟)世與左衛門古田可兵衛上野紀伊守類の事 Item [7] Men who have given you steadfast and blameless service but have not been awarded a stipend by you find themselves in dire need in Kyoto. They turned to Nobunaga with a heavy heart. If I were to say a few words in their behalf, they assumed, then surely you would take pity on them. On the one hand, I felt sorry for them; on the other, I thought it would be in the interest of the public authority (kōgi no ontame; sc., to your benefit). So I put the matter of their stipends before you, but you did not assent in even one case. Your hard-heartedness, excessive as it is, puts me out of countenance before these men. I refer to the likes of Kanze Yozaemon [Kunihiro], Furuta Kahyōe, and Ueno Kii no Kami [Hidetame].

4. A samurai captured in 1573 who would rather die than submit to Nobunaga.

御尋に依て前後の始末申上之處神妙の働無是非の間致忠節候はゝ一命可被成御助と御諚候爰にて印牧申樣に朝倉に對し日比遺恨雖深重の事候今此刻歷々討死候處に述懷を申立生殘御忠節不叶時者當座を申たると思召御扶持も無之候へは實儀も外聞も見苦敷候はんの間腹を可仕と申乞生害前代未聞の働名譽名不及是非 When Kanemaki, on being questioned by Nobunaga, gave a rough account of his career, Nobunaga commented that it would be a shame to lose a man with such marvelous accomplishments to his credit and stated that his life would be spared, were he to pledge his loyal service to Nobunaga. To this Kanemaki replied that he had harbored a deep grudge against the Asakura for a long time. Now that so many warriors of standing had been killed, however, he could not permit himself to stay alive by giving vent to his resentment. The moment he was remiss in his loyal service, Nobunaga would surely think that whatever he might have said at this juncture was just an expedient to save his skin and would cancel his stipend. Then Kanemaki would be unable to live with himself and with what people would say about him. He would therefore cut his own belly now. Having made this plea, he took his own life. His heroism was unprecedented, and his glory was beyond dispute.

5. Nobunaga to his own "companions" (think of Alexander’s foot and horse companions) in 1575 because he was feeling generous that day and had just given a bunch of cloth to a beggar and then felt like also rewarding his men who were supposedly moved to tears by the former act of generosity.

御伴之上下皆落淚也御伴衆何れも々々被加御扶持難有仕合無申計樣体也如此御慈悲深き故に諸天の有御冥利而御家門長久にに御座候と感申也 All of Nobunaga’s companions, those of high as of low rank, also shed tears. Each and every one of his companions had his stipend increased, and it goes without saying that they felt fortunate and thankful. It is because Nobunaga was so compassionate, everyone felt, that the heavens shed their blessings upon him and that the fortunes of his house would long endure.

6. Kuki Yoshitaka and Takigawa Kazumasu in 1578 for building big ships.

九鬼右馬允被召寄黃金二十枚並御服十菱喰折二行拜領其上千人つヽ御扶持被仰 Nobunaga summoned Kuki Uma no Jō and presented him with twenty pieces of gold as well as ten garments and two boxes containing wild duck. In addition, Nobunaga rewarded Kuki Uma no Jō and Takikawa Sakon with stipends adequate to maintaining a thousand men each.

7. A young samurai in 1579 for being a good wrestler, since Nobunaga loves wrestling.

甲賀の伴正林と申者年齡十八九に候歟能相撲七番打仕候次日又御相撲有此時も取すぐり則御扶持人に被召出鐵炮屋與四郞折節御折檻にて籠へ被入置彼與四郞私宅資財雜具共に御知行百石熨斗付の太刀脇指大小二ツ御小袖御馬皆具其に拜領名譽の次第也 A man from Kōka whose name was Tomo Shōrin, some eighteen or nineteen years old, showed good skills and scored seven wins. The next day, too, Nobunaga put on sumo matches, and Tomo again outclassed the others. As a result, Nobunaga selected Tomo to become his stipendiary. At about that time Nobunaga had to take disciplinary measures against a gunsmith by the name of Yoshirō, whom he locked up in a cage. Now Tomo Shōrin received the private residence, household goods, and other possessions of this Yoshirō. Nobunaga also gave him an estate of one hundred koku, a sword and a dagger with gold-encrusted sheaths, a lined silk garment, and a horse with a complete set of gear—glorious recognition for Tomo.

8. As part of his order preparing for his soon-to-be conquests in 1582, Nobunaga ordered his vassals to hire good local samurai.

一 國諸侍に懇扱さすか無由斷樣可氣遣事 一 第一慾を構に付て諸人爲不足之條內儀相續にをひては皆々に令支配人數を可拘事 一 本國より奉公望之者有之者相改まへ拘候ものゝかたへ相屆於其上可扶持之事 Item [5] Treat the provincial samurai with courtesy. For all that, never be remiss in your vigilance. Item [6] When the top man is greedy, his retainers do not get enough. Upon succeeding to domains, apportion them to all your retainers and take new men into your service. Item [7] Should there be any men from your home province who wish to enter your service, investigate their provenance, contact their previous employers, and only then grant them a stipend.

So Ōta Gyūichi used the word from time to time, and it was not a one-off usage. Every single usage of the word stipend by Ōta Gyūichi was, without exception, either giving it to samurai, some of whom were incredibly high ranked, or used in the context of hiring samurai or samurai’s salary. This includes a young sumo wrestler who may or may not have been a samurai, but was definitely hired by Nobunaga as his personal samurai. There is therefore no reason to think Gyūichi was using the term in Yasuke's context any differently. In fact we might even draw a slight parallel to Tomo Shōrin. Yasuke was said to have had the strength of ten men, meaning he must have demonstrated that strength and it’s certainly possible he demonstrated it through wrestling and beating everyone. Nobunaga loved wrestling, loved exotic stuff, and as shown above loved to demonstrate his generosity. So, it would certainly make sense on meeting Yasuke (coincidentally at Honnōji) for Nobunaga to make give Yasuke, who was exotic and might have been good at wrestling, a samurai’s stipend, a decorated sword, and a residence. Incidentally Tomo Shōrin was also at Honnōji when Akechi Mitsuhide attacked, though unlike Yasuke he did not survive.
EDIT: I'm adding an explanation because people are misinterpreting this post.
The meaning of the word stipend is not supposed to prove Yasuke was a samurai all by itself. What proves Yasuke was a samurai is not he received a samurai stipend, but that he received a samurai stipend and carried Nobunaga's weapons which was the job of a samurai and had and fought with a katana at Nijō and he was mobilized and followed Nobunaga on the Takeda campaign of 1582 and remained by Nobunaga's side even after Nobunaga dismissed all his "ordinary soldiers".
If you've read all my posts and links on Yasuke and still don't believe Yasuke was a samurai, then you either a) prefer to believe your own bias over historical research or b) should post an academic level publication from a PhD level researcher arguing Yasuke wasn't a samurai so I could read it.
Source

[Q] 'Is "samurai" a title in the way that High Middle Ages knighthood was? I.e. you formally take part in an accolade and are dubbed "knight," or is it more fluid than that?'

[A]

Leaving aside the actual fluidity of the word "knight," there was never a formalized requirement of a "samurai-ing" ceremony. At this point in time a samurai was basically anyone who 1) went to war armed and ready to fight and 2) either a) awarded/inherited an estate with enough income capable of supporting at least a family plus hire follower(s) for war, b) paid a stipend which was "permanent" (as in not just for the duration of the task) of about that value, or c) had enough property to be some sort of community leader so could be called upon for war often with follower(s). In the mid-sixteenth century the legal privileges of using his family name on official documentations and wearing two swords in public and having these be inheritable would be formalized. But that was many decades past Yasuke's time, and even then things were a lot more fluid than most people realize.
Actual titles were something else entirely, though many samurai of the time liked to self-style said titles, so those not officially recognized and recorded had little value. Looking through the list of names killed at Honnōji and Nijō, like Yasuke most did not have titles (officially recognized or self-styled) or if they did they were not known by the titles.
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Yes he was a samurai. I don't know how the game portrays him and don't care, but for sure samurai was not something glorious or indeed all that rare. Neither was their lives all it's cut out to be (everyone's lives sucked in 16th century Japan) and while there were plenty of non-samurai who tried and became samurai, there were also plenty of samurai who "gave up" their status and became peasants or merchants.
Source: Paragraph 1 Paragraph 2

[C] "Yasuke is just an irrelevant character not worth mentioning with few historical records"

[A]

If I may ask, why are there so few written accounts about Yasuke?

Yasuke is mentioned in at least: one diary, one chronicle, three letters, and one ecclesiastic history (Francois Solier's, who confirms he was from the area of Mozambique and brought to Japan via India). As far as the number of written accounts that mention a historical figure goes, that's a lot. In comparison most of the other koshō at Honnōji and Nijō who fought and lost their lives, we only know them because they are mentioned in the Shinchōkōki or later works that cite or obviously reference it, and many are only mentioned in so far as having their names listed among the dead.

an African person 'becoming a samurai' without it being documented is ridiculous.

Maybe, maybe not. Good thing then Yasuke becoming a samurai was documented.
Source: Paragraph 1

[Q] "In how many battles has Yasuke fought?"

[A]

We don't know how much time he spent in Japan because he first appeared in the sources on March 27, 1581, and was last mentioned on June 21, 1582.
Our sources only clearly state him fighting at Nijō Castle, though it's possible he also fought at Honnōji that morning. That still counts as one though. He followed Nobunaga on the Takeda campaign of 1582 but there's no record of Nobunaga's direct forces engaging in combat.
Source: Paragraph 1

[C] "Having a fief is required for a Samurai"

[R]

Having a fief is not a requirement for being samurai as around the time Yasuke appeared an increasing number of samurai were employed on stipend.
Matsudaira Ietada's diary describe him as being under Nobunaga fuchi. I don't know if western internet writers mistakenly translate the term literally as "carry" but fuchi means a rice stipend or a warrior employed by such stipend. Yasuke was paid a fuchi. At the very least Lorenzo Mesia reported that Nobunaga assigned people to show him around Kyōto. Either way would make him a warrior.
Having a (long)sword is not a mark of a samurai either until the late 17th century when the Edo Bakufu outlawed the wearing of the (long)sword in public by non-samurai population of the cities.
And in any case Luis Frois recorded Yasuke having fought at Nijō where he surrendered his sword. So he had one.
So he was definitely a samurai. And considering he was among Nobunaga/Nobutada's pages/guards, a relatively important one at that.
Source: Paragraph 1
Response by a user:
I still disagree...
He was obviously one of Nobunaga’s pages, but that doesn’t mean he was Samurai. As I stated, as sandal bearer Toyotomi Hideyoshi was also one of Nobunaga’s pages while he was a peasant, a position that would have also seen him receive a stipend.
The longsword was outlawed for non-Samurai in the 16th Century when Toyotomi instituted the sword hunt, removing them from the possession of all peasantry. Either way, the only explicit reference to Yasuke’s sword type is when Nobunaga gifted him a wakizashi and I don’t think it proves anything one way or another aside from Nobunaga taking an interest in the man which also explains him being shown around Kyoto.
He may have been Samurai, but there is not enough proof to definitely say so. I also think that considering his unique status at the time, if he had been made Samurai one of the sources would have explicitly stated so as it would have been unusual if not unheard of for the Japanese and probably unheard of for any of the western missionaries in the country at the time.
Response to this:
In general, 扶持 is a term for a payment for mid-lower ranking warriors for them to hire (usually warrior) servants for (usually temporary) employment. Given the term's usual usage, and that Yasuke was clearly by Nobunaga's side in permanent employment, it doesn't make sense for Yasuke to be anything but a warrior.
Even if Yasuke was "only" a 小姓 (page) or 道具持ち (weapons-bearer), that would make him a warrior on par with Ranmaru (at least before spring of 1582 when Ranmaru received a large fief).
In contrast, the Toyokagami specifically says Hideyoshi started out taking care of Nobunaga's shoes when Nobunaga went hunting. When Hideyoshi became a samurai, the term used for Hideyoshi's servants was ずさ.
You seem to be under the impression that a samurai was someone who needed to be officially made one, like "knighted". That isn't very accurate for the knight either, but bushi was a social group determined by what one did, not a formal rank or title. Meaning Ietada describing him as Nobunaga's fuchi, and as it doesn't make sense for Ietada to think Nobunaga was someone in a position to be dealing with the hiring of servants himself, Ietada's diary is more record of Yasuke being a samurai than many others would get.
Could Ietada be using the term to mean something other than its usual meaning, or just be mistaken? Of course. But as far as I know currently no one has put forward evidence of, or really even argued such. All published authors in English and Japanese pretty much treat Yasuke as a samurai (Lockley goes so far as to say so in the title of his book).

The longsword was outlawed for non-Samurai in the 16th Century when Toyotomi instituted the sword hunt, removing them from the possession of all peasantry. Either way, the only explicit reference to Yasuke’s sword type is when Nobunaga gifted him a wakizashi and I don’t think it proves anything one way or another aside from Nobunaga taking an interest in the man which also explains him being shown around Kyoto.

Sword hunt's orders was "limited" to the country-side peasantry, and in any case was two decade's after Yasuke's time under Nobunaga. Besides, the word used by the translation of Luis Frois' report is katana.
Source

[C] "He was only a page/squire/retainer (whatever)"

[R]

No, but they were a social class of their own, and the distinction was enough that we have specific mention of ashigaru (who were not part of the samurai class until the Edo period) being raised to the samurai class.

A 小姓 (page/squire/aide/bodyguard) was a full samurai. FYI no source say Yasuke was actually a 小姓, which was a specific job title. The assumption is if he really was a weapons-bearer, as supposedly recorded in the Maeda Clan version of the Chronicles of Lord Nobunaga, he would most likely be a 小姓. Unfortunately the relevant dates of the Maeda Clan version is not available on the National Archives of Japan Digital Archives so I can't check, but I don't have a reason to doubt it.

As for the report Luis Frois uses, if I remember correctly it describes the sword given to Yasuke as a ‘short ceremonial katana’ implying, to me at least, that it was a wakizashi as you have to question whether a foreign priest would see much difference beyond their length. Again, there is room for disagreement.

Frois says no such thing. Most likely you remember wikipedia (cough) which record that in Maeda Clan version of the Chronicles of Lord Nobunaga, Yasuke was given a koshigatana (just another name for wakizashi, not sure who translated it as "short, ceremonial katana" in English) during his first meeting with Nobunaga in spring of 1581.
I already linked and translated the relevant section of Luis Frois' letter in the thread above. Even in the original Portuguese Frois uses the term katana (spelled cataná).
Source

[Misc] First Breakdown of the History about Yasuke (and why he was a Samurai)

Here are all the written accounts of Yasuke I can find. Bare with me because all of them I'm translating from Japanese:
Chronicles of Lord Nobunaga (Shinchōkōki):

2nd Month 23rd Day [March 27, 1581]. A black monk* came from the Christian countries. He looks about 26-7 of age and his entire body black as a cow. He's body is really well-built, and furthermore has the strength of over ten men. The padre brought him here to see Lord Nobunaga. I'm really grateful to be able to see such rare things among the three countries that's never been seen before, and in in such detail, all thanks to Lord Nobunaga's great influence.

*Wiki's translation use "page" but it's probably wrong. In this case Ōta Gyūichi probably mean shaved/hairless.
Letter from Luis Frois, April 14, 1581:

The Monday after Easter, Nobunaga was in the capital, but a great number of people gathered in front of our casa to see the cafre [black slave], creating such a ruckus that people were hurt and almost died from thrown rocks. Even though we had lots of guards at the gates, it was difficult holding people back from breaking it down. They all say if we showed for money, one would easily earn in a short time 8,000 to 10,000 cruzado. Nobunaga also wanted to see him, and so sent for him, so Padre Organtino brought him. With great fuss, he couldn't believe this was the natural colour and not by human means, so ordered him to take off all his clothes above his belt. Nobunaga's sons also called him over, and everyone was very happy. Nobunaga's nephew the current commander of Ōsaka also saw this and was so happy he gave him 10,000 coins.

Letter from Lorenzo Mesia, October 8, 1581:

The padre brought one cafre with him, and no one in the capital has see before, and they all admired him, and countless people came to see him. Nobunaga himself saw him and was surprised, and thought it was painted with ink and did not believe he was black from birth. He see him from time to time, and he knew some Japanese, so he never got tired of talking to him, and he was strong and knew some tricks so Nobunaga was very happy. Now he's his strong patron, and to let everyone know he has has a someone show go with him around the city. The people say Nobunaga would make him a tono*.

*Japanese word for lord or sir.
Matsudaira Ietada's Diary, Tenshō 10, fourth month:

Nineteenth [May 11, 1582], day of Teibi. Raining. His highness gave him a stipend. They say deus [the Jesuits] presented him. He had the black man with him. His body was black like ink, 6.2 feet tall. They say his name's Yasuke.

Luis Frois' report to Jesuit Society, November 5, 1582:

And the cafre the Visitador [Alessandro Valignano] gave to Nobunaga on his request, after his death went to the mansion of his heir and fought there for a long time, but when one of Akechi's vassals got close and asked him give up his sword, he handed it over. The vassals went and asked Akechi what to do with the cafre, he said the cafre is like an animal and knows nothing, and he's not Japanese so don't kill him and give him to the church of the Indian padre. With this we were a bit relieved.

So all we know about him is that he was probably the first African in central Japan, and aroused great interest from all the Japanese. He was big, healthy, strong, knew some performance tricks, and learned some Japanese. He was a slave of the Jesuits, but Nobunaga took a liking to him and the Jesuits gave him to Nobunaga. Nobunaga liked him so much he was given a stipend, so he was definitely made a samurai. After Nobunaga's death at Honnōji, he went to Nijō Castle to protect Oda Nobutada, and fought bravely. But it was for naught, and he was captured and handed over to the Jesuits. Nothing else is known about him.
One other textual reference to Africans in Japan exist. In Luis Frois' History of Japan he recorded another cafre and one from Malabar (India) working the two cannons on Arima clan's ship, with one loading and one igniting.
Otherwise there are pictorial evidence of Africans in Japan.
This is a painting of one in a sumo match who may or may not be Yasuke.
A couple of paintings here and here suggest that unlike central Japan, Africans as slaves seems not that rare in the trading ports, probably Hirado or Nagasaki.
EDIT: For those interested, the relevant section of the Jesuits' letters in the original Portuguese are below:

• April 14, 1581 letter from Luis Frois
• October 8, 1581 letter from Lorenzo Mesia
• November 5, 1582 report from Luis Frois

TL;DR

[C] 'A stipend could've been given to anyone'
[R] In the Chronicles of Oda Nobunaga by Ōta Gyūichi the usage of the word stipend (specifically 扶持) has ALWAYS been used in the context of either giving it to samurai, some of whom were incredibly high ranked, or used in the context of hiring samurai or samurai’s salary.

.

[Q] 'Is "samurai" a title in the way that High Middle Ages knighthood was? I.e. you formally take part in an accolade and are dubbed "knight," or is it more fluid than that?'
[A] It was fluid because in that time period anyone who "1) went to war armed and ready to fight and 2) either a) awarded/inherited an estate with enough income capable of supporting at least a family plus hire follower(s) for war, b) paid a stipend which was "permanent" (as in not just for the duration of the task) of about that value, or c) had enough property to be some sort of community leader so could be called upon for war often with follower(s)" was considered a Samurai.

.

[C] "Yasuke is just an irrelevant character not worth mentioning with few historical records"
[R] He is better documented than anybody else of his rank during the Sengoku period.

.

[Q] "In how many battles has Yasuke fought?"
[A] We don't know in how many battles he has actually fought.

.

[C] "Having a fief is required for a Samurai"
[R] No, it wasn't. A payment or stipend was enough to be considered a Samurai.

.

[C] "He was only a page/squire/retainer (whatever)"
[R] Even if he was, a 小姓 (page/squire/aide/bodyguard) was a full samurai.

Conclusion

AskHistorians Moderator
https://preview.redd.it/q4btyylk101d1.png?width=953&format=png&auto=webp&s=f426a78501904d6b79a7ef0d1268f695deb4626e
Source
And as u/ParallelPain previously said already "If you've read all my posts and links on Yasuke and still don't believe Yasuke was a samurai, then you either a) prefer to believe your own bias over historical research or b) should post an academic level publication from a PhD level researcher arguing Yasuke wasn't a samurai so I could read it."
Source (at the end)
Share/repost this in all reddits, so people can stop complaining. Also, if anything is broken, I'm going to fix it, but Reddit keeps messing the formatting up.