The swastika has been used for over three thousand years by billions of people in many cultures and religions--including Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism--as an auspicious symbol of the sun and good fortune. However, beginning with its hijacking and misappropriation by Nazi Germany, it has also been used, and continues to be used, as a symbol of hate in the Western World. Hitler's device is in fact a "hooked cross." Rev. Nakagaki's book explains how and why these symbols got confused, and offers a path to peace, understanding, and reconciliation.
Buddhist Swastika and Hitler's Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate, T.K. Nakagaki, Stone Bridge Press, Paperback, 200 pp, $18.95

Rev. Dr. T. K. Nakagaki is a Buddhist priest, ordained in the 750-year-old Jodoshinshu tradition of Japanese Buddhism. He was ordained at the Nishi Hongwanji Temple in Kyoto, Japan, in 1980. He graduated from Ryukoku University in Kyoto, majoring in Buddhist History in 1983, and later conducted advanced study in Jodoshinshu Buddhist doctrine at Gyoshin Buddhist Seminary in Osaka, Japan, from 1983-1985. He received an M.A. in Linguistics from California State University at Fresno in 1994, and earned a Doctorate of Ministry in Multifaith studies from the New York Theological Seminary in 2012. Rev. Dr. Nakagaki is a Founder and President of Heiwa Peace and Reconciliation Foundation of New York, and current executive officer and former President of the Buddhist Council of New York, Hiroshima Peace Ambassador, Peace Correspondent of Nagasaki City, Community Clergy Liaison for the NYC Police Department, and former Vice President of the Interfaith Center of New York. He served as a resident priest for Jodoshinshu Buddhist communities in Seattle from 1985-1989, in Parlier, CA from 1989-1994, and at the New York Buddhist Church from 1994-2010. Since 1994, Rev. Nakagaki has organized an annual interfaith peace event to commemorate the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, and from 2002-2011 he organized the annual 9-11 WTC Memorial Floating Lanterns Ceremony. He is the author of three books in Japanese, A New York Buddhist Priest Walks in India (Gendai Shokan, 2003); Diary of a Manhattan Monk (Gendai Shokan, 2010); and Manji and Hakenkreuz (Gendaishokan, 2013) He is also a noted Japanese calligrapher.

CONTENTS: Buddhist Swastika and Hitler's Cross
	Acknowledgments	9
PREFACE: Western vs. Eastern Perceptions of the Swastika		13
	A Few Notes on Terms and Images	15
	My First encounter in the US with the Western Perception of the Swastika	16
	Why Discuss the Swastika Now?	18
	The Human Capacity for Atrocity	20
	Encountering Holocaust Survivors	23
	Importance of Dialogue	25
	Our Own Monsters Within	25
TWO: A Universal Symbol		54
	Swastika Use in Various Religions	54
	The Swastika Symbol in North America	72
THREE: Hitler's Flag		85
	Design of the Hook-Cross	85
	Hitler and the Eastern Swastika: Swastika Usage in the 19th- and 20th-Century Europe	90
FOUR: Hitler's First Meaning of "Hakenkreuz": Aryan		94
	Meaning of "Aryan"	94
	Arya in Buddhism	95
	The Western Concept of What an Aryan Is	99
	The Meaning of "Aryan" for Hitler	104
FIVE: Hitler's Second Meaning of "Hakenkreuz": Anti-Semitism		113
	Meaning of Anti-Semitism	113
	Anti-Semitism and Hitler's Early Life	116
	Martin Luther (1483-1546)	118
	Richard Wagner (1813-1883)	125
	Luther, Wagner, and Hitler	135
	Political Symbol vs. Religious and Spiritual Symbol	135
SIX: Hitler's Cross Is a Hakenkreuz, Not a Swastika		137
	Difference between "Swastika" and "Hakenkreuz"	137
	Hitler Called It "Hakenkreuz"	140
	Definition of "Hakenkreuz"	143
	"Swastika" and "Hakenkreuz" in Dictionaries	146
	Translation Problems of "Hakenkreuz"	150
CONCLUSION: Present and Future Meaning of the Swastika Symbol		159
	Current Swastika Issues	159
	Where Are We Going?	163
EPILOGUE: Action Plan for the Public		166
	Suggested Statement about the Swastika for Western Museums	167
	Suggested Statement about the Swastika for Eastern Tradition Temples	167
Bibliography		170
Endnotes		182
Figure Credits		197