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JAPAN |
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HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN JAPAN:
Beth Israel Synagogue,
Nagasaki. From the 1901-1906. Jewish Encyclopedia.
The history of the
Jews in
Japan is
well documented in modern times with various traditions relating to much
earlier eras
Status of Jews in Japan
Jews are a minor
ethnic and
religious group in
Japan, presently consisting of only about 2,000
people or about 0.0016% of
Japan's total population. Although Jews have been
present in Japan and
Judaism has been practiced since the 16th century, on a
very limited scale, in Japan, Japan comprised but a small
part of
Jewish history from the ending of Japan's "closed-door"
foreign policy to
World War II.
Jewish history in Japan
Early settlements
The first confirmed contacts
between the Japanese and people of Jewish ancestry began
during the
Age of Discovery (16th century) with the arrival of
European travelers and merchants (primarily the
Portuguese and
Dutch). However it was not until 1853, with the arrival
of
Commodore Matthew Perry following the
Convention of Kanagawa ending Japan's "closed-door"
foreign policy that Jewish families began to settle in
Japan. The first recorded Jewish settlers arrived at
Yokohama in 1861 establishing a diverse community
consisting of 50 families (from various Western countries)
as well as the building of the first
synagogue in Japan. The community would later move to
Kobe after the
great Kanto earthquake of 1923.
Another early Jewish
settlement was one established in the 1880s in
Nagasaki, a large Japanese port. This community was
larger than the one in Yokohama, consisting of more than 100
families. It was here that the Beth Israel Synagogue was
created in 1894. The settlement would continually grow and
remain active until it eventually declined by the
Russo-Japanese War in the early 20th century. The
community's
Torah scroll would eventually be passed down to the Jews
of Kobe, a group formed of freed Russian Jewish war
prisoners that had participated in the
Czar's army and the
Russian Revolution of 1905.
From the beginning of the
1900s (decade) to the 1950s, the Kobe Jewish community was
one of the largest Jewish communities in Japan formed by
hundreds of Jews arriving from Russia (originating from the
Manchurian city of
Harbin), the
Middle East (mainly from
Iraq and
Syria), as well as from
Central and
Eastern European countries (primarily
Germany). During this time
Tokyo's Jewish community (now Japan's largest) was
slowly growing with the arrival of Jews from the
United States and Western Europe for multiple reasons.
Both of these communities were formed based on
constitutional values along with community organizations
that had a committee president and treasurer and communal
structure. Each community now has its own synagogue and
welcomes anyone of the Jewish faith 18 years or older to
become a member.
Jewish settlement in Imperial
Japan
Some Japanese leaders, such
as Captain
Inuzuka Koreshige (犬塚 惟重), Colonel
Yasue Norihiro (安江 仙弘) and industrialist
Aikawa Yoshisuke (鮎川 義介), came to believe that Jewish
economic and political power could be harnessed by Japan
through controlled immigration, and that such a policy would
also ensure favor from the
United States through the influence of
American Jewry. Although efforts were made to attract
Jewish investment and immigrants, the plan was limited by
the government's desire not to interfere with its alliance
with
Nazi Germany. Ultimately it was left up to the world
Jewish community to fund the settlements and to supply
settlers, and the plan failed to attract a significant
long-term population or create the strategic benefits for
Japan that had been expected by its originators.
On December 6, 1938, Five
ministers council (Prime
Minister
Fumimaro Konoe,
Army Minister
Seishirō Itagaki,
Navy Minister
Mitsumasa Yonai,
Foreign Minister
Hachirō Arita and
Finance Minister
Shigeaki Ikeda), which was the highest decision making
council, made a decision of prohibiting the expulsion of the
Jews in Japan.
During World War II, Japan
was regarded as a safe refuge from
the Holocaust, despite being a part of the
Axis and an ally of Germany. During World War II, Jews
trying to escape German-occupied
Poland could not pass the blockades near the
Soviet Union and the
Mediterranean Sea and were forced to go through the
neutral country of
Lithuania (which was occupied by belligerents in June
1940, starting with the Soviet Union, then Germany, and then
the Soviet Union again).
Of those who arrived,
many (around 5,000) were sent to the
Dutch West Indies with Japanese visas issued by
Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese
consul to
Lithuania. Sugihara ignored his orders and gave
thousands of Jews entry visas to Japan, risking his career
and saving more than 6,000 lives. Sugihara is said to have
cooperated with
Polish intelligence, as a part of bigger Japanese-Polish
cooperative plan. They
managed to flee across the vast territory of Russia by train
to
Vladivostok and then by boat to
Kobe in Japan. The refugees in number of 2,185 arrived
in Japan from August 1940 to June 1941.
Tadeusz Romer, the Polish ambassador in
Tokyo, had managed to get transit visas in Japan, asylum
visas to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, immigration
certificates to Palestine, and immigrant visas to the United
States and some Latin American countries. Most Jews were
permitted and encouraged to move on from Japan to the
Shanghai Ghetto,
China, under Japanese occupation for the duration of
World War II. Finally, Tadeusz Romer arrived in
Shanghai on November 1, 1941, to continue the action for
Jewish refugees. Among those saved in the Shanghai Ghetto
were leaders and students of
Mir yeshiva, the only European
yeshiva to survive
the Holocaust. They, some 400 in number, fled from
Mir to
Vilna with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and
then to
Keidan, Lithuania. In late 1940, they obtained visas
from Chiune Sugihara, to travel from Keidan, then
Lithuanian SSR, via
Siberia and
Vladivostok to
Kobe, Japan. By
November 1941 the Japanese moved this group and most of
others on to the Shanghai Ghetto in order to consolidate the
Jews under their control.Throughout
the war, the Japanese government continually rejected
requests from the German government to establish
anti-Semitic policies. Towards the end, Nazi
representatives pressured the Japanese army to devise a plan
to exterminate Shanghai's Jewish population, and this
pressure eventually became known to the Jewish community's
leadership. However, the Japanese had no intention of
further provoking the anger of the
Allies, and thus delayed the German request for a time,
eventually rejecting it entirely.
One famous
Orthodox Jewish institution that was saved this way was
the
Lithuanian
Haredi
Mir yeshiva. The Japanese government and people offered
the Jews temporary shelter, medical services, food,
transportation, and gifts, but preferred that they move on
to reside in Japanese-occupied Shanghai.
At war's end, about half of
the Jews who had been in Japanese-controlled territories
later moved on to the
Western hemisphere (such as the United States and
Canada) and the remainder moved to other parts of the
world, mainly to
Israel.
Accusations of antisemitism
With only a small and
relatively obscure
Jewish population,
Japan had no traditional
antisemitism until the 20th century, when Russian
antisemitism and
Nazi
ideology and
propaganda influenced a small number of
Japanese.
Adolf Hitler argued the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance dissolve was due to the Jewish
Press.
Antisemitism took mainly the
form of a
subculture of conspiracy theory which was expressed in
the context of a conspiracy to subjugate the world or Japan
which is ultimately controlled by Jews. Antisemitic and
conspiracist books and pamphlets are sold in major
bookstores and themes which may be influenced by
stereotypical views of Jews have entered the popular culture
and even affect the educated academic community.
Japanese society lacks many
of the
racist
taboos held by the Western world; this is reflected in
elements of
Japanese popular culture, reflecting
stereotypes or other forms of expression regarding the
Jewish people, or other peoples, that would be considered
outrageous in the West.
In 1918, the Japanese army
sent troops to
Siberia to aid the
White Army against the
Bolshevik
Red Army. It was at this time that Japanese were first
introduced to the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic
text.
Though deeper research by the
Japanese military and government unearthed no evidence of a
global Jewish conspiracy, a small number of officials and
officers continued to believe in the economic and political
power of the Jewish people. In the early 1930s, a plot known
as the
Fugu Plan was thus hatched, in which this small cadre of
"Jewish experts" convinced the government and military to
arrange for the re-settlement of thousands of Jews from
Europe in the
Japanese Empire. The underlying belief behind this plan
was that a population of Jews could create amazing economic
benefit for Japan, and that the power of Jews in other parts
of the world, particularly in the United States, was great
enough that the rescue of Jews from the Nazis could benefit
US-Japan relations.
In 1936,
lieutenant general
Shioden Nobutaka (四王天延孝), translated the Protocols
into Japanese. Shioden became a believer in a Jewish
conspiracy while he was studying in
France. According to
Dr. David Kranzler, "The key to the distinction between
the Japanese and the European form of antisemitism seems to
lie in the long
Christian tradition of identifying the Jew with the
Devil, the
Antichrist or someone otherwise beyond redemption ...
The Japanese lacked this Christian image of the Jew and
brought to their reading of the Protocols a totally
different perspective. The Christian tried to solve the
problem of the Jew by eliminating him; the Japanese tried to
harness his alleged immense wealth and power to Japan's
advantage."
As Japan was allied with
Nazi Germany in
World War II, Nazi ideology and propaganda regarding the
Jewish people came to be circulated within Japan as well,
contributing to the development of Japan's particular brand
of antisemitism. However, while various theories about the
Jewish people may have gained a degree of acceptance among
the Japanese people as a whole, the Japanese government and
military never gave in to Nazi recommendations that
extermination programs or the like be undertaken.
By the end of the 20th
century, a great many books were published relating to the
Jewish conspiracy or the theory that Japanese and Jews have
common ancestry. Various theories and explanations for the
alleged Jewish control of the world were thus circulated,
many involving elements of the occult and intellectual play,
and gossip. Occult theories relating to the Jewish people,
along with theories connecting the Jews and Japan, play a
major role in a number of so-called "New Religions" (Shinshūkyō)
in Japan. However, anti-semitic books in Japan are usually
regarded as a type of
tondemobon (トンデモ本, dodgy/outrageous books, a term
which covers a wide range of
esoteric subjects taken lightly by the vast majority of
the population.
Jews and Judaism in modern Japan
After World War II, a large
portion of the few Jews that were in Japan left, many going
to what would become
Israel. Some of those who remained married locals and
were assimilated into Japanese society.
The Israeli embassy and its
staff is based in Tokyo. Presently, there are several
hundred Jewish families living in Tokyo, and a small number
of Jewish families in Kobe. A small number of Jewish
expatriates of other countries live throughout Japan,
temporarily, for business, research, a
gap year, or a variety of other purposes. There are
always Jewish members of the United States armed forces
serving on
Okinawa and in the other American military bases
throughout Japan.
There are two major
active synagogues in Japan. The Beth David Synagogue is
active in Tokyo, and the Ohel Shlomo Synagogue is active in
Kobe. The
Chabad-Lubavitch organization has two centers in Tokyo.[
- Rabbi
Herman Dicker, 1960–1963, Orthodox
- Rabbi
Marvin Tokayer, 1968–1976, Conservative
- Rabbi
Jonathan Z. Maltzman, 1980–1983, Conservative
- Rabbi
Michael Schudrich, 1983–1989, Conservative
- Rabbi
Moshe Silberschein, 1989–1992, Conservative
- Rabbi
Jim Lebeau, 1993–1997, Conservative
- Rabbi
Carnie Shalom Rose, 1998–1999, Conservative
- Rabbi
Elliot Marmon, 1999–2002, Conservative
- Rabbi
Henri Noach, 2002–2008, Conservative
- Rabbi
Rachel Smookler, Reform, interim-rabbi
- Rabbi
Antonio Di Gesù, 2009–present, Conservative
Chabad
List of notable Jews in Japan
- Refugees, short
expatriates
- Other related people to
Judaism and Jews in Japan
Ambassadors
Films
- Jewish Soul
Music: The Art of Giora Feidman
(1980). Directed by Uri Barbash.
See also
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