Anyone have any documented cases of how Japan treated Jews during world war II? I've read a wikipedia article and it's sources claim that Japan rejected Nazi orders to exterminate Jews, anyone know how true this is?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_JapanThe 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.
Topic: Japanese treatment of Jews during world war II? (Read 4737 times)