History of the Jews in Japan
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Jews are a minor ethnic group in Japan, presently consisting of only about 1,000[citation needed] people or about 0.0008%[citation needed] of Japan's total population. Though Judaism has existed and been practiced on a very limited scale in Japan, Japan is a small part of 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
There is a possibility that Jewish immigration to Japan predates contact with Europe[citation needed]. The Hata clan (秦氏) was a group active in Japan during the Yamato period, according to the epic history Nihonshoki and Kojiki. The Nihonshoki indicates that the Hata were not originally native to Japan, and came from the Korean kingdom of Baekje, some[citation needed] believe the Hata only passed through Baekje and were originally from somewhere further away. According to the theory[citation needed], the clan was descended from Prince Yuzuki no Kimi, who in turn was a descendant of the first Emperor of Qin of the Qin Dynasty. Prince Yuzuki had become a Korean prince, and emigrated to Japan in 283 CE with a great number of his countrymen. Though the majority of scholars do not draw any connections between these Korean immigrants and the Jewish people, there exists a minority opinion that the Hata clan were among the Lost Tribes of Israel. It is more likely, however, that if the Hata were Jewish at all, that they were Chinese Jews.
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 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.
Ironically, 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, 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 (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 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.
Late in the War, 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.
The relative safety of the Jews during this period, in contrast to the Japanese treatment of Chinese during the war, was linked to Jewish connections in the United States. It was believed that good treatment of Jews within Japanese territory would help cause the US to look favorably upon Japan. Nevertheless, conditions in the Designated Area were abysmal, particularly during the summer months.
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] Antisemitism
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With only a small and relatively obscure Jewish population, Japan had no traditional antisemitism until the 20th century, when Soviet antisemitism and Nazi ideology and propaganda influenced a small number of Japanese. While antisemitism did not become a widespread phenomenon in the country, it persists even today, taking the form of a subculture. Antisemitic and conspiracist books and pamphlets are sold in major bookstores , and antisemitic themes enter the popular culture and even affect the educated academic community.
Current antisemitism in Japan includes elements of the occult and of conspiracy theories. Furthermore, Japanese society lacks many of the taboos held by the Western world on racial characterizations, as they have less experience with racist connections; this is occasionally 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, a conspiratorial text describing the Jewish global conspiracy in detail; the document has today been proven a forgery, but continues to bear a strong influence on antisemitic beliefs in Japan, and around the world.
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[1]."
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 very wide range of occultist subjects, such as UFOs and psychic power), and are generally taken very lightly by the vast majority of the population.
[edit] 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.[citation needed]
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 there is also an active Orthodox synagogue in Kobe. The Chabad Lubavitch organization has a center in Tokyo [1] [2].
[edit] Films
- Jewish Soul Music: The Art of Giora Feidman (1980). Directed by Uri Barbash.
[edit] See also
- Timeline of Jewish history
- Ethnic issues in Japan
- 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
- ^ Kranzler, David. Japanese, Nazis & Jews: The Jewish Refugee Community in Shanghai, 1938-1945. p.207
- 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
- Occultism
- Togakkai (the Academy of Outrageous Books) (Japanese text only)
- Jews in the Japanese Mind by David G. Goodman and Miyazawa Masanori. A seminal book on this topic.
- On Ignorance, Respect and Suspicion: Current Japanese Attitudes toward Jews by Rotem Kowner. A large-scale study of Japanese views of Jews.
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Aum, and Antisemitism in Japan (PDF) by David G. Goodman.
- On Symbolic Antisemitism: Motives for the Success of the Protocols in Japan and Its Consequences by Rotem Kowner. A critical essay.
- 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
- Chabad 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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