Description |
xvi, 188 pages : portraits ; 24 cm |
Contents |
1. Introduction -- 2. Before Japan Had a Jewish Problem: The War in China and Japanese Anti-Semitism -- 3. Japan's Jewish Problem in 1938: Rhetoric Confronts Reality -- 4. Increasing Restrictions in 1939 and 1940 -- 5. Sugihara Chiune: Extraordinary Diplomat -- 6. Jewish Refugees in Japan in 1941 -- 7. Conclusion |
Summary |
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, European Jews traveled east to seek refuge in the West. Three thousand refugees transited Japan and China, and more than 21,000 spent the war in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Japanese diplomats in Europe were caught off guard by the flood of visa applicants, and the Foreign Ministry belatedly confronted a refugee problem. Unexpected visitors became uninvited guests. Vice Consul Sugihara Chiune might have faded into history as a minor diplomat in Lithuania had he not issued thousands of transit visas to refugees, including those who fulfilled few visa requirements. Sakamoto demonstrates how he helped thousands escape Europe; in the end, as she points out, a number of Japanese diplomats saved Jews by issuing visas, but very few issued visas to save jews |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliography (pages [171]-182) and index |
Subject |
Sugihara, Chiune, 1900-1986.
|
|
Jewish refugees -- Japan.
|
|
Jews -- Japan -- History -- 20th century.
|
|
Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust -- Japan -- Biography.
|
|
World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue -- Japan.
|
SUBJECT |
Japan -- Ethnic relations.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008105987
|
LC no. |
98006076 |
ISBN |
0275961990 (alk. paper) |
|