NEW YORK—T. K. Nakagaki, a Japanese Buddhist priest based in Brooklyn, has set out on a personal quest to explain the original meaning of the swastika, which in several Eastern cultures is a symbol of love and auspiciousness. After the Nazis appropriated the symbol in the Thirties as an emblem of Aryan supremacy, its ancient meaning was largely forgotten in the West.
Nakagaki came up with the idea of writing about the swastika during a workshop in the Interfaith Center of New York. The theme of the day was hate speech, and one of the panelists said that the swastika is “the universal symbol of evil.”
“What do you mean by universal?” Nakagaki asked the panelist. After all, he grew up surrounded by swastikas in his native Nagasaki. He’s since published a book on the subject of the swastika and has given several talks in Buddhist communities in New York. “Ignorance has to be somehow stopped,” Nakagaki said.
Video by Anna Pazos.
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