Jewish settlement in the Japanese Empire
Shortly prior to and during
The memoranda
Memoranda written in 1930s
The detailed scheme included how the settlement would be organized and how Jewish support, both in terms of investment and actual settlers, would be garnered. In June and July 1939, the memoranda "Concrete Measures to be Employed to Turn Friendly to Japan the Public Opinion Far East Diplomatic Policy Close Circle of President of USA by Manipulating Influential Jews in China" and "The Study and Analysis of Introducing Jewish Capital" came to be reviewed and approved by the top Japanese officials in China.
Methods of attracting both Jewish and American favor were to include the sending of a delegation to the United States, to introduce American rabbis to the similarities between Judaism and Shinto, and the bringing of rabbis back to Japan in order to introduce them and their religion to the Japanese. Methods were also suggested for gaining the favor of American journalism and Hollywood.
The majority of the documents were devoted to the settlements, allowing for the settlement populations to range in size from 18,000, up to 600,000. Details included the land size of the settlement, infrastructural arrangements, schools, hospitals etc. for each level of population. Jews in these settlements were to be given complete freedom of religion, along with cultural and educational autonomy. While the authors were wary of affording too much political autonomy, it was felt that some freedom would be necessary to attract settlers, as well as economic investment.
The Japanese officials asked to approve the plan insisted that while the settlements could appear autonomous, controls needed to be placed to keep the Jews under surveillance. It was feared that the Jews might somehow penetrate into the mainstream Japanese government and economy, influencing or taking command of it in the same way that they, according to the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion, had done in many other countries. The world Jewish community was to fund the settlements and supply the settlers.
History
Before World War II
The idea for a population to be established in Manchukuo (otherwise known as Manchuria) and help build Japan's industry and infrastructure there was headed by a small group whose primary members included Captain Koreshige Inuzuka and Captain Norihiro Yasue, who became known as "Jewish experts", the industrialist Yoshisuke Aikawa and a number of officials in the Kwantung Army, known as the "Manchurian Faction".
Their decision to attract Jews to Manchukuo came from a belief that the Jewish people were wealthy and had considerable political influence.
In 1922, Yasue and Inuzuka had returned from the
In 1931, the officers joined forces to an extent with the Manchurian faction and a number of Japanese military officials who pushed for Japanese expansion into Manchuria, led by Colonel
Of Harbin's one million population, Jews represented only a tiny fraction. Their numbers, as high as 13,000 in the 1920s had halved by the mid-1930s in response to economic depression and after events relating to the kidnapping and murder of Simon Kaspé by a gang of Russian Fascists[4] and criminals under the influence of Konstantin Rodzaevsky.[5]
Although Russian Jews in Manchukuo were given legal status and protection, the half-hearted investigation into Kaspé's death by the Japanese authorities, who were attempting to court the White Russian community as local enforcers and for their Anti-Communist sentiments,[6] led the Jews of Harbin to no longer trust the Japanese army. Many left for Shanghai, where the Jewish community had suffered no antisemitism,[7] or deeper into China. In 1937, after Yasue spoke with Jewish leaders in Harbin, the Far Eastern Jewish Council was established by Abraham Kaufman, and over the next several years, many meetings were held to discuss the idea of encouraging and establishing Jewish settlements in and around Harbin.
In March 1938, Lieutenant General Kiichiro Higuchi of the Imperial Japanese Army proposed the reception of some Jewish refugees from Russia to General Hideki Tojo. Despite German protests, Tojo approved and had Manchuria, then a puppet state of Japan, admit them.[8][9][10]
On December 6, 1938,
As an immediate result of the Five Ministers' Conference, 14,000–15,000 Eastern European Jews were granted asylum in the Japanese quarter of Shanghai; the European quarters, in contrast, admitted almost no Jews. 1000 Polish refugees who had not been able to obtain visas for any country were also given asylum in Shanghai.[13]
The next few years were filled with reports and meetings, not only between the proponents of the plan but also with members of the Jewish community, but was not adopted officially. In 1939, the Jews of Shanghai requested that no more
During World War II
In 1939 the
Despite this, the Japanese Consul in
By the summer of 1941, the Japanese government was becoming anxious about having so many Jewish refugees in such a major city, and near major military and commercial ports. It was decided that the Jews of Kobe had to be relocated to Shanghai, occupied by Japan. Only those who had lived in Kobe before the arrival of the refugees were allowed to stay. Germany had violated the Non-aggression Pact, and declared war on the USSR, making Russia and Japan potential enemies, and therefore putting an end to the boats from Vladivostok to Tsuruga.
Several months later, just after the
In 1941 the Nazi
Jews entering and residing in Japan, China, and Manchukuo were treated the same as other foreigners and, in one instance, Japanese officials in Harbin ignored a formal complaint by the German consulate which was deeply insulted by one of the Russian-Jewish newspapers' attack on Hitler. In his book, "Japanese, Nazis and Jews", Dr. David Kranzler states Japan's position was ultimately pro-Jewish.
During the six months following the Five Minister's Conference, lax restrictions for entering the International Settlement, such as the requirement for no visa or papers of any kind, allowed 15,000 Jewish refugees to be admitted to the Japanese sector in Shanghai. Japanese policy declared that Jews entering and residing in Japan, China, and Manchukuo would be treated the same as other foreigners.
From 1943, Jews in Shanghai shared a "Designated Area for Stateless Refugees" of 40 blocks along with 100,000 Chinese residents. Most Jews fared as well, often better than other Shanghai residents. The ghetto remained open and free of barbed wire and Jewish refugees could acquire passes to leave the zone. However it was bombed just months before the end of the war by Allied planes seeking to destroy a radio transmitter within the city, with the consequential loss of life to both Jews and Chinese in the ghetto.
Japan's support of Zionism
Japanese approval came as early as December 1918, when the Shanghai Zionist Association received a message endorsing the government's "pleasure of having learned of the advent desire of the Zionists to establish in Palestine a National Jewish Homeland". It indicated that, "Japan will accord its sympathy to the realization of your [Zionist] aspirations."[23]
This was further explicit endorsement in January 1919 when Chinda Sutemi wrote to Chaim Weizmann in the name of the Japanese Emperor stating that, "the Japanese government gladly takes note of the Zionist aspiration to extend in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people and they look forward with a sympathetic interest to the realization of such desire upon the basis proposed."[24] Japan recognized British policies in Palestine in return for British approval of Japanese control over the Shandong Peninsula in China.
Influential Japanese intellectuals including
A high-level Japanese government reports on plans for mass emigration to Manchuria in 1936 included references to ethnic conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine as scenarios to avoid.[28] These influential Japanese policy makers and institutions referred to Zionist forms of cooperative agricultural settlement as a model that Japanese should emulate.[citation needed] By 1940, Japanese-occupied Manchuria was host to 17,000 Jewish refugees, most coming from Eastern Europe.
Yasue, Inuzuka and other sympathetic diplomats wished to utilize those Jewish refugees in Manchuria and Shanghai in return for the favorable treatments accorded to them. Japanese official quarters expected American Jewry influence American Far Eastern policy and make it neutral or pro-Japanese and attract badly needed Jewish capital for the industrial development of Manchuria.
Post-war, the 1952 recognition of full diplomatic relations with Israel by the Japanese government was a breakthrough amongst Asian nations.
Significance
Approximately 24,000 Jews escaped the Holocaust either by immigrating through Japan or living under direct Japanese rule by the policies surrounding Japan's more pro-Jewish attitude.
Koreshige Inuzuka's help in rescuing Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe was acknowledged by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States which saved him from being tried as a war criminal. He went on to establish the Japan-Israel Association and was president until his death in 1965.
Popular accounts
There is little evidence to suggest that the Japanese had ever contemplated a Jewish state or a Jewish autonomous region,[31] unlike the Soviet Union which had already established the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934. In 1979 Rabbi Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz authored a book called The Fugu Plan. In this partly fictionalized account, Tokayer & Swartz gave the name the 'Fugu Plan' to the 1930s memorandums. They claim that the plan, which was viewed by its proponents as risky but potentially rewarding for Japan, was named after the Japanese word for puffer-fish, a delicacy which can be fatally poisonous if incorrectly prepared.[2] (The memorandums were not actually called The Fugu Plan in Japanese.) Tokayer and Swartz base their claims on statements made by Captain Koreshige Inuzuka and allege that such a plan was first discussed in 1934 and then solidified in 1938, supported by notables such as Inuzuka, Ishiguro Shiro and Norihiro Yasue;[32] however, the signing of the Tripartite Pact in 1940 and other events prevented its full implementation.
Ben-Ami Shillony, a professor at the
See also
- Abraham Kaufman, a prominent Zionist in Harbin
- Antisemitism in Japan
- Birobidzhan, a Stalin-era founded city for Jews in Soviet territory, bordering Manchukuo's Sanjiang Province
- Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who assisted Lithuanian Jews in escaping Nazi persecution
- East Asian Jews
- Hakko Ichiu
- Makuya, a Japanese-based faith initiative closely linked with Judeo-Christian beliefs and values
- Shōwa period
- Dachau-Austria death march, halted by Nisei U.S. Army troops
- History of the Jews in Japan
- History of Jews in Kobe
- History of the Jews during World War II
- Israel–Japan relations
- Racial Equality Proposal
- Slattery Report, an American proposal to bring Jewish refugees to Alaska
- territorialism
- Uganda Scheme
References
- ^ Tokayer. p58.
- ^ a b Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe. A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West. Pages 196–197.
- ^ "Japan & the Jews During the Holocaust". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
- ISBN 1-881896-02-1
- ^ My China: Jewish Life in the Orient 1900–1950 by Yaacov Liberman. Gefen Publishing House, Ltd.
- ^ Dubois, Thomas David, "Rule of Law in a Brave New Empire: Legal Rhetoric and Practice in Manchukuo." Law and History Review 26.2 (2008): 48 pars. 1 May 2009
- ISBN 0-89362-000-9
- Asahi shimbun. 2010-05-04. Archived from the originalon February 2, 2014. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
- ISBN 978-1-60223-013-2.
- ISBN 0-7391-0167-6.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
- ^ "猶太人対策要綱". Five ministers council. Japan Center for Asian Historical Record. 1938-12-06. p. 36/42. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
- ISBN 3-8050-0454-0.
- ^ "Jan Zwartendijk. - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum".
- ^ Tokayer, p. 220.
- ^ Wasserstein, Bernard, Secret War in Shanghai: An Untold Story of Espionage, Intrigue, and Treason in World War II. 1999
- ^ Mark O'Neill, "A saved haven: Plans to rejuvenate Shanghai's rundown former Jewish ghetto will celebrate the district's role as a sanctuary during the second world war," South China Morning Post, August 1, 2006; Features: Behind the News; Pg. 11.
- ^ "Jane Shlensky, "Considering Other Choices: Chiune Sugihara's Rescue of Polish Jews," North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Durham, NC, 2003, p. 6" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2010-10-27.
- ^ Patrick E. Tyler, "Jews Revisit Shanghai, Grateful Still that it Sheltered Them." New York Times, June 29, 1994.
- Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, Volume 19, Number 3, Spring 2001, pp. 160-161.
- ^ Ernest G. Heppner, Shanghai Refuge - A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto, 1995.
- ISBN 0-89362-000-9.
- ^ Maruyama, Naoki. "Japan's Response to the Zionist Movement in the 1920s," Bulletin of the Graduate School of International Relations, No. 2 (December 1984), 29.
- ^ World Zionist Organization, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Copy Z4/2039.
- ^ Tadao, Yanaihara. Yanaihara Tadao Zenshū, Vol. 4, 184, edited by Shigeru, Nambara (1965).
- ^ Boer, John de. "In Promotion of Colonialism: Yanaihara Tadao's Rendering of Zionist Colonial Settlements", Western Conference of the Association of Asian Studies, 1 October 2004.
- ^ Tadao, Yanaihara. "Yudaya Mondai" in Yanaihara Tadao, Nihon Heiwaron Taikei. (1993) pages 269–277
- ^ Nihon Gakujutsu Shinko-Kai Gakujutsu-bu Dai-2 Tokubetsu Iinkai, Manshu Imin Mondai to Jisseki Chosa, (December 1936), page 41.
- ^ Kranzler, "Japanese, Nazis, and Jews", page 563
- New York Times, Aug 6, 1934. p. 4.
- ^ Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan by Ben-Ami Shillony. p 209
- ^ Shillony Ben-Ami. The Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan page 170
- ^ Inuzuka Kiyoko, Kaigun Inuzuka kikan no kiroku: Yudaya mondai to Nippon no kōsaku (Tokyo: Nihon kōgyō shimbunsha, 1982)
- ^ Ben Ami-Shillony, The Jews and the Japanese: The Successful Outsiders (Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1991)
- ISBN 0-312-17385-7
- ^ Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan by Ben-Ami Shillony. Edition: reprint, illustrated Published by Oxford University Press, 1991.
Sources
- Eber, Irene. Wartime Shanghai and the Jewish refugees from Central Europe: survival, co-existence, and identity in a multi-ethnic city (Walter de Gruyter, 2012).
- Gao Bei. Shanghai Sanctuary: Chinese and Japanese Policy toward European Jewish Refugees during World War II (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013)
- Shillony, Ben-Ami. (review). The Journal of Japanese Studies 40.2 (2014): 413–417.
- Goodman, David. Jews in the Japanese Mind. Free Press, 1994, ISBN 0-02-912482-4.
- Kase Hideaki, Nihon no naka no Yudayajin.
- Levine, Hillel. In Search Of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked His Life To Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust, University of Michigan, ISBN 0-684-83251-8.
- Pallister, Casey J. Japan's Jewish "Other": Antisemitism in Prewar and Wartime Japan. University of Oregon.
- Sakamoto, Pamela Rotner. Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma, Praeger Publishers, 1998, ISBN 0-275-96199-0.
- Shillony, Ben-Ami. Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan, Oxford University Press, 1991.
- Shillony, Ben-Ami. "Defending Japan's Pacific War: The Kyoto School Philosophers". The Journal of Japanese Studies – Volume 32, 2006.
- Shillony, Ben-Ami. Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.
- Sugita Rokuichi, Higashi Ajia e kita Yudayajin.
- Tokayer, Rabbi Marvin; Mary Swartz (1979). The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II. Paddington Press. ASIN: B000KA6NWO.
- Tokayer, Rabbi Marvin; Mary Swartz (2004). The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story Of The Japanese And The Jews During World War II. Gefen Publishing House; 1st Gefen Ed edition. ISBN 965-229-329-6.
- Inuzuka Kiyoko, Kaigun Inuzuka kikan no kiroku: Yudaya mondai to Nippon no kōsaku (Tokyo: Nihon kōgyō shimbunsha, 1982).