Note about the "Manji"

Since some of you may not know about the history of this symbol, I though I would include a note concerning it before I got hate mail from people who don't know better. I took this description form my manga: Blade of the Immortal, since they had a very good summery in the front of the novel already. Please read below to know more.

This symbol is also known as the swastika, a name derived from the Sanskrit svastika (meaning "welfare," from su -"well" + asti-"he is"). As a symbol of prosperity and good fortune, the swastika was widely used throughout the ancient world (for example, appearing often on Mesopotamian coinage), including North and South America and has been used in Japan as a symbol of Buddhism since ancient times. To be precise, the symbol generally used by Japanese Buddhists is the sauvastika, which moves in a counterclockwise direction, and is called the manji in Japanese. The arms of the swastika, which point in a clockwise direction, are generally considered a solar symbol. It was this version (the hakenkreuz) that was perverted by the Nazis. The sauvastika generally stands for night and often for magical practices. It is important that you understand that the swastika has ancient and honorable origins, and it is those that apply to the symbol used here. There is no anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi meaning behind the use of the symbol in this game. Those meanings did not exist until 1910.

Side note: My home town was near Native American lands. Many of the older buildings had been decorated with this symbol, among other Indian symbols, all of the paintings predated WW2 or any Nazi campaign. So I learned at a very young age that this symbol was not always considered "evil" and that at one time is was considered to stand for life, light, longevity, and luck.