Jews and Judaism in Japan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jews are a minor ethnic group in Japan, presently consisting of only about 1,000 Jews or about 0.0008% of Japan's total population. Though Judaism has existed and been practiced on a very limited scale in Japan, Japan is very rich in Jewish history, from the ending of Japan's "closed-door" foreign policy to World War II.
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[edit] Jewish history in Japan
[edit] Early settlements
First 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 wasn't 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 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.
[edit] The Fugu Plan and World War II
The Fugu Plan or Fugu Plot (河豚計画 Fugu keikaku?) was a scheme created by the Japanese government in the 1930s, centered around the idea of creating political and economic advantages for Japan by settling Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe in Japanese-controlled Manchuria. The motivation behind the plan appears to have been based on an uncritical acceptance of anti-Semitic propaganda such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which promulgated the idea that the Jewish people had an intrinsic and almost supernatural ability to accumulate money and power. 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), known as the "Jewish experts", came to believe that this 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.
[edit] World War II events and policies
Ironically, during World War II Japan was one of the safest refuge countries from the Holocaust, despite being a part of the Axis and an ally of Germany, which persecuted the Jews. During World War II, Jews trying to escape 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.
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 as many as 10,000 lives. Most Jews were permitted and encouraged to move on from Japan to settle in Shanghai, China under Japanese occupation for the duration of World War II.
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.
Throughout the war, the Japanese government continually rejected requests from the German government to establish anti-Semitic policies. At war's end, about half these Jews later moved on to the Western Hemisphere (such as the United States and Canada) and the remainder moved to other parts of the world, many to Israel.
[edit] Possibilities of descent from the Ten Lost Tribes
Some writers have speculated that the Japanese people themselves may be direct descendants of part of the Ten Lost Tribes that belonged to the ancient Kingdom of Israel which was destroyed and exiled by the ancient Assyrians beginning about 2,700 years ago and corresponding with the establishment of Japan's own Chrysanthemum Throne.
An article that has been widely circulated and published, entitled "Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes: Japan" by Arimasa Kubo[1] (a Japanese writer living in Japan who studied the Hebrew Bible), concludes that many traditional customs and ceremonies in Japan are very similar to the ones of ancient Israel and that perhaps these rituals came from the religion and customs of the Jews and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel who might have come to ancient Japan. [2]
Joseph Eidelberg's "The Biblical Hebrew Origin of the Japanese People" makes a similar case:
- Late in his life, Joseph Eidelberg began analyzing ancient traditions, religious ceremonies, historical names, haiku poems, Kana writings and Japanese folk songs, discovering thousands of words with similar pronunciations, sounds and translations between Hebrew and Japanese. These discoveries are history in the making, giving credible new information on the meanings of many unknown Japanese words, numbers, songs and cultural traditions – and this book is the first time that these remarkable similarities are combined into a single consistent theory. The Biblical Hebrew Origin of the Japanese People casts a new light on the roots of the Japanese people and its mysterious cultural sources. [3]
[edit] Jews and Judaism in modern Japan
After World War II, the few Jews that were in Japan left, many going to what would become Israel. Those who remained married locals and were assimilated into Japanese society.
Presently, there are several hundred Jewish families living in Tokyo. The Israeli embassy and its staff is based in Tokyo. There are a small number of Jewish families in Kobe. There are always Jewish members of the United States armed forces serving on Okinawa.
There are a number of active synagogues in Japan. The Beth David Synagogue is active in Tokyo. There is an active Orthodox synagogue in Kobe. The Chabad Lubavitch organization has a center in Japan [4].
[edit] See also
- Timeline of Jewish history
- History of the Jews in China
- History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
- Shanghai ghetto
- Who is a Jew?
- Israel-Japan relations
- Fugu Plan
[edit] References
- Joseph Eidelberg: The Biblical Hebrew Origin of the Japanese People. Gefen Publishing, ISBN 965-229-339-3
- Tokayer, Rabbi Marvin (1979). "The Fugu Plan" New York: Weatherhill, Inc.
[edit] External links and references
- General
- History
- The Jews of Japan
- Visas For Life: The Remarkable Story of Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara
- Kobe: Key to Japan's Jewish Experience
- The Jews of Kobe
- Jewish life in modern Japan
- The Jewish Communities of Japan
- Tokyo's Jewish Community Center
- Japanese museum teaches about Shoah
- Jewish Community of Kansai (Japan)
- Chabad-Lubavitch Centers in Japan
- Judaism and Japan
- PBS: Ten Lost Tribes: Japan
- Mysteries of the Bible: Lost Tribes - Japan
- The Japanese convert (Setzuso Kotsuji)
- The Ohel Shelomo Synagogue in Kobe, Japan
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