Abstract
Anti-Semitism took root in Japan before the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, but Adolf Hitler’s ascent gave new impetus to Japanese advocates of Jewish conspiracy theories. In addition to the anti-Jewish lobbying of domestic anti-Semites, the Japanese government, as it moved toward alliance with Germany, faced pressure from Berlin to adopt complementary, harsh policies toward the Jews. To the disappointment of the radical anti-Semites, Japanese officials proved reluctant to follow the German lead. Instead, they adopted policies that reflected conflicted Japanese attitudes about the Jews.
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Notes
Cyrus Adler, Jacob H. Schiff His Life and Letters, vol. I (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928), chapter VII and Gary Dean Best, “Jacob Schiff’s Early Interest in Japan,” American Jewish History, 69 (1980): 355–359. Takahashi was Japanese Prime Minister during 1921–1922. While serving as minister of finance, he was murdered during a 1936 revolt by young army officers.
Maruyama Naoki, “Japan’s Response to the Zionist Movement in the 1920s,” Bulletin of the Graduate School of International Relations, International University of Japan, 2 (December 1984), pp. 27–40 and Ben-Ami Shillony, The Jews and the Japanese: The Successful Outsiders (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1991), chapter 17.
John J. Stephan, The Russian Fascists: Tragedy and Farce in Exile 1925–1945 (London: Hamilton, 1978), pp. 47, 79.
See Henry Ford, The International Jew. The World’s Foremost Problem (Dearborn, MI: Dearborn Publishing Co., 1920).
Albert Lee, Henry Ford and the Jews (New York: Stein & Day, 1980), p. 46.
Doron B. Cohen, “Uchimura Kanzō on Jews and Zionism,” The Japan Christian Review, 58 (1992): 111–120.
Bandō, Nihon no Yudaya seisaku, pp. 54–61, 107–113, 130–132; Avraham Altman, “Controlling the Jews, Manchukuo Style,” in Roman Malek, ed., From Kaifeng… to Shanghai: Jews in China (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 2000), pp. 279–317. See also Higuchi’s sympathetic speech addressing the Jews at the Conference of the Jews in the Far East at Harbin on December 26, 1938, where he called Japan the only paradise for the Jewish people: Gaimushō, Minzoku 4.
Report of the German Consulate in Harbin, January 29, 1939, see Françoise Kreissler, “Japans Judenpolitik (1931–1945),” in Gerhard Krebs and Bernd Martin, eds., Formierung und Fall der Achse Berlin-Tōkyō (München: iudicium, 1984), pp. 187–210, especially p. 203.
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (München: Eher, 1932), pp. 723–724.
Alfred Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts (München: Hoheneichen-Verlag, 1934) p.655.
Alfred Stoß, Der Kampf zwischen Juda und Japan. Japan als Vorkämpfer freier Volkswirtschaft (München: Ludendorffs Verlag, 1934). Japanese translation: Arufuredo Sutossu, Yudaya to Nihon no tatakai, foreword by Akaike Atsushi (Seikyosha, 1938).
Richard Storry’s foreword to Kurt Singer, Mirror, Sword and Jewel: A Study of Japanese Characteristics (New York: G. Braziller, 1973), pp. 9–11.
Several of his studies are found in the Archives of the Japanese Foreign Ministry in: Gaimushō, Minzoku. See also Inuzuka’s main publication (under the pseudonym: Utsunomiya Kiyo), Yudaya mondai to Nihon—tsuki kokusai himitsuryoku no kenkyū (The Jewish Problem and Japan—Including Studies on International Secret Powers) (Naigai Shobō, 1939). On Inuzuka’s ideology and activities see also David G. Goodman and Miyazawa Masanori, Jews in the Japanese Mind: The History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype. Expanded Edition (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000), pp. 128–133
Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999), passim.
See Goodman and Miyazawa, Jews in the Japanese Mind; Sakamoto, Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees; David Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews: The Jewish Community of Shanghai, 1938–1945 (New York: Yeshiva University Press, 1976)
Cheryl A. Silverman, “Jewish Emigrés and Popular Images of Jews in Japan,” unpublished Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1989; Sugihara Yukiko, Rokusennin no inochi no biza (Visas for the Lives of 6,000 People) (Asahi Sonorama, 1990); Pamela Shatzkes, “Kobe: A Japanese Haven for Jewish Refugees, 1940–1941,” Japan Forum, 3 (1991): 257–273;
Chū-Nichi Shinbun Shakaibuhen, Jiyū e no tōsō—Sugihara biza to Yudayajin (Escape to Freedom— Sugihara’s Visas and the Jews) (Tokyo: Shinbun Shuppankyoku, 1995)
Hillel Levine, In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat who Risked his Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust (New York: The Free Press, 1996)
Sugihara Seishiro, Chiune Sugihara and Japan’s Foreign Ministry (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001).
Marsha Reynders Ristaino, Port of Last Resort: The Diaspora Communities of Shanghai (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002), pp. 140–141.
Otto D. Tolischus, Through Japanese Eyes (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1945), pp 90–92.
Bernard Wasserstein, Secret War in Shanghai (London: Profile Books, 1998), pp. 148–149.
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© 2004 E. Bruce Reynolds
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Krebs, G. (2004). The “Jewish Problem” in Japanese—German Relations, 1933–1945. In: Reynolds, E.B. (eds) Japan in the Fascist Era. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980410_4
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