Another reason Japan felt the need to mobilize the Manchurian Jews was the fear that they, too, would join the boycott against Nazi Germany’s goods that had been proclaimed by international Jewish organizations, mainly in the United States, following the onset of anti-Jewish persecution in Germany. The boycott of German goods proved, to those Japanese who believed in it, that the Jews had vast power and influence and could severely harm Germany’s economy if they so desired. The boycott issue became more acute after Japan joined Germany in the Anti-Comintern Pact of November 1936. Now there grew the realization that it would be useful to organize a regional Jewish body that would help advance Japan’s goals in Manchuria, China, and even in South East Asia. The position of those who called for the utilization of imaginary Jewish power won over those who advised Japan to keep away from any thing that smacked of Jews.
The task of organizing the Jewish communities in Manchuria and later in all of East Asia fell to Japan’s number-one Jewish expert, Colonel Yasue
Norihiro. Since his visit to Palestine in 1927 he had fulfilled a number of mid-level roles in the Japanese army, but apparently he was not that busy, as he also found time to write books and articles on Jews and deliver lec-tures to civilian and military groups. In his publications he wrote that the Jews endangered the world, spread dangerous thoughts, and were plan-ning a global revolution to destroy the existing world order and establish a universal socialist regime that would help their cause.
The need to mobilize the Jews of Manchuria became more significant after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, a war that caused much anger in the United States and Britain, especially at the end of 1937 following the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing.
Yasue was assigned to the Kwantung Army Headquarters as an expert on Jewish affairs and once again served under Major General Higuchi Kiichiro, who was chief of the Intelligence Bureau of Harbin for the Kwantung Army.
One of the first things he did was shut down the Russian language news-paper Nash Pot, the mouthpiece of the Russian antisemites in Manchuria.
Higuchi had previously served as military attaché in the Japanese embassy in Warsaw, had a number of Jewish friends, and was aware of the plight of the Polish Jews. When he arrived in Harbin he developed friendly ties with Dr. Abraham Kaufman, the veteran leader of the Jewish community there.
The Jewish experts also helped prepare a position paper for the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, General Tojo Hideki (1884-1948), who would later serve as Japan’s wartime prime minister from 1941-1944. The document contained detailed instructions to the Japanese authorities in Manchukuo intended to ease the entry of a certain number of Jewish refu-gees into that territory. It was determined that the entry of Jews who had a certain amount of funds would be permitted. The implementation of these instructions was left to the discretion of local border officials, mainly in the border town of Manchuli, on the Manchurian-Siberian border where the Trans-Siberian train stopped. This train carried many of the Jews who chose the Siberian route to escape from Central Europe. Since they did not have a visa to Japan or entry permits to the Soviet Union, it was evident that if they were not allowed into Manchuria they would be sent back to Germany or Austria. Tales of their plight reached Harbin, and Dr. Kaufman was able to persuade Higuchi to allow a large number of these refugees to enter Manchuria. They were met at the Harbin station by members of the Zionist youth movements and were housed temporarily in a Jewish-owned hotel called Astoria. They were then taken to Dairen, from whence they sailed to Shanghai.
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Japan and the Jews of Manchuria Beginning in 1931
Japan’s attitude toward the Jewish refugees now became an important issue, since it also involved German-Japanese relations. The problem, as noted above, was how to avoid doing anything positive for the Jews that would harm Japan’s ties with Nazi Germany while also avoiding alienating American Jews, whose economic power was seen by Japan as dominant. In view of such conflicting considerations, the Japanese high command had to navigate the political waters carefully, and once again they turned to their chief expert.
Yasue’s recommemdation was to establish a regional council of the Jewish communities in East Asia, which would serve as the umbrella orga-nization for the Jews of Manchuria, Northern China, and even Japan. For that purpose he recruited the heads of the Harbin Jewish community, led by Dr. Abraham Kaufman and Lev Zykman. Colonel Yasue was aware that Dr. Kaufman had contacts with the World Jewish Congress and various American Jewish organizations, as well as with the Zionist Executive in Jerusalem. Another possible reason for the creation of this organization was that the Jewish experts believed that the Manchurian Jewish leadership would be able to establish ties with American Jewry, which was seen as highly influential at the time. The American media was full of stories about the atrocity known as “rape of Nanjing,” and the Japanese government felt the necessity of limiting the damage done by the publicity of the crimes committed by Japanese troops in the Chinese capital.
The culmination of this activity was the convening of the First Congress of the Jews in East Asia in Harbin on December 26, 1937, with over five hun-dred people in attendance. Among those present were a number of senior Japanese officers, headed by General Higuchi, and there were even some White Russian observers. Order was maintained by uniformed members of the local Beitar Youth Movement. The gala opening session of the congress was covered by Japanese reporters. The speeches given by the Japanese offi-cers stressed the need for the Jews to identify with Japan’s struggle for peace and harmony. In East Asia, its fight against Bolshevism, and its demand for a rightful place in the sun. The Jewish speakers expressed their strong iden-tification with Japan’s “rightful struggle” and supported its desire to achieve for itself a place in the sun (defined in this case as becoming the leading regional superpower).
Major General Higuchi stressed in his speech that the government of Japan and the Japanese people held no prejudices against Jews and did not subscribe to racist ideology. He stated that they welcomed close, friendly ties with the Jews and were prepared to cooperate with them in the economic and commercial spheres in Japan as well as in other countries.
In his response, Dr. Kaufman emphasised the fact that Jews residing in Japanese-controlled areas enjoyed full equality and were not discrim-inated against because of their race. They were willing to cooperate with Japan and Manchukuo in an effort to create a new order in East Asia under Japan. At the conclusion of the three-day conference, a governing body was established, led by Dr. Kaufman but under the close supervision of Colonel Yasue, who became the link between the Japanese authorities and the con-gress. As noted above, one of the immediate results was the granting of transit entry permits into Manchukuo for thousands of Jewish refugees who were stranded in Manchuli on the Soviet border on their way to Shanghai, the United States, and any other destination that would accept them. Years later, Kaufman (who immigrated to Israel in 1961) explained that the Jews of Harbin had no choice but to collaborate with the Japanese authorities in order to survive. This argument was repeated by his son Theodore (1923-2012) in his own memoirs.5
The Congress met again in December 1938 and December 1939. The fourth gathering was due to take place in Dairen in December 1940, but the German government asked Japan to cancel it. Japan, having signed the Axis Pact with Germany and Italy ten weeks earlier, decided to comply.
This marked the end of this body, which was in reality an instrument of the Japanese army meant to control the Jews or at least gain some pro-paganda benefits. Yasue was removed from his post as Jewish expert in Dairen. Captain Inuzuka would emerge later in Shanghai, once again as a Jewish expert. One of the results of the Far Eastern Congress, however, was salutary. The Japanese army in Manchuria and Northern China understood that the highest echelons of their commanders were involved in this enter-prise, and thus the Jews were left on their own in that part of China, their institutions untouched until Japan surrendered in 1945.
In their capacity as heads of the Congress, Kaufman and Zykman vis-ited Japan a number of times during 1938-1940 and met with Japanese cab-inet members. Yasue and Kaufman even came up with the idea of sending Zykman to America to meet the heads of the American Jewish Congress as the representative of the East Asian Jews. Their plan was to mobilize the American Jewish leader Rabbi Stephen Wise (1874-1949) in an effort to improve Japan-American relations. The Japanese officers apparently thought that Zykman could have a mollifying effect on American Jewish leaders, and that they in turn could prevent the worsening of commercial ties between Japan and the United States and even avert the possibility of economic sanctions against Japan that would seriously harm Japan’s military
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Japan and the Jews of Manchuria Beginning in 1931
preparations for a future war against the United States. Zykman’s role would be to tell American Jewish leaders that Japan treated the approximately 15,000 Jews under its control in East Asia fairly. Wise’s angry response was written on November 22, 1938, some two weeks after “Kristallnacht” in Germany, and rejected outright the notion that American Jews would sup-port Japan, a fascist state like Germany and Italy. He informed Zykman that he was not even prepared to discuss the matter, regardless of the reasons that Zykman was seeking his help. This setback did not deter Yasue, who continued to maintain close ties with Dr. Kaufman.6
Another Japanese idea was considered in 1939 by Yasue, Inuzuka, and the Japanese foreign ministry official Ishiguro Shiro. It regarded the possi-bility of creating an autonomous Jewish area near Shanghai, similar to the Soviet Jewish autonomous region of Birobijan. It is unclear how seriously the Japanese government treated this idea, which was never implemented, but it is indicative of the thinking of the two experts on Jewish matters in the Japanese army.7
After Japan joined Germany and Italy in the Axis Pact in late September, 1940, Lev Zykman was invited on December 31 to dinner at the home of Japan’s Foreign Minister Matsuoka, the man who more than any other Japanese leader had pushed for Japan to join the Axis pact. Matsuoka, who knew the Manchurian Jewish leaders from his tenure as chairman of the Southern Manchurian Railway, attempted to allay Zykman’s fears that Japan might also adopt some of Germany’s antisemitic policies, saying that Germany’s racial policies did not obligate Japan, and that the Jews in Japan and the territories under its control would not be harmed by Nazi-style anti-Jewish measures. He made it clear that he was speaking on behalf of the Emperor of Japan, and added that neither Hitler nor Ribbentrop had ever asked Japan to adopt Nazi Germany’s racist policies toward the Jews.
Zykman, who held a Polish passport, reported on what was said at this meeting to the Polish ambassador in Tokyo, Thadeusz Romer, who in turn reported it to the American ambassador Joseph Grew.
Two years earlier, in December 1938, the government of Japan reached the conclusion that it had to adopt a more precise policy regarding the thousands of Jewish refugees who were now crowding its consulates and embassies in Europe, desperately seeking to escape from the Nazi terror.
Japan’s diplomatic and consular representatives in several European capi-tals requested clear-cut guidelines regarding issuing visas to the growing number of Jewish refugees. A committee of five ministers convened for that purpose issued a statement that said in clear terms that expelling the Jews
from Japanese-held territories would violate the principle of racial equality and that Japan would refrain from doing so. It also added that in view of the need to mobilize foreign capital for the purpose of Japan’s war economy, the Jews in China, Japan, and Manchukuo would be treated fairly and the migration of valuable people, such as engineers and capitalists, would be encouraged. The decisions of this committee will be described in greater details in the following chapter. On February 27, 1939, Foreign Minister Arita Hachiro (1884-1965) stated in Japan’s Upper House that “Jews resid-ing in Japan will be treated like other foreign residents…. Jews reachresid-ing Japanese shores must obey Japan’s immigration laws but they will not be denied entry only because of their race.”8 However, the instructions sent out to Japanese consular officials told them to severely limit the issuing of entry permits to Japan and Manchukuo.