The newest member of the Gush Emunim settlement of Kedumim near Nablus is a 40-year-old Japanese, Sadao O Ham Q Hara, who will move into the settlement in June with his wife and three children, plans to build on export-oriented paper plant, there.
The Jerusalem Post said that Q Hara is the leader of the 2000 member Bnei Shomron sect in Japan which regards itself as the vestige of the 10 lost tribes which were exiled by the Assyrians after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th Century BCE. As Biblical fundamentalists they endorse Gush Emunim’s claim to the entire Land of Israel and believe that the ingathering of the lost tribes will precipitate the coming of the Messiah.
O Hara said he hopes the paper plant will be ready for operation by the time he and his family move to Kedumim in June. He said it will be almost fully automated and will be operated by himself and one other person. He said it will produce $400,000-$500,000 worth of paper annually for export to Japan and other Asian countries. The paper will be marketed through his computer paper printout company in Japan.
A Shinto by birth and the son of a Japanese general killed in action during World War II, O Hara grew up in Okinawa. He said the strange spelling for his name, which appears to be more Irish than Japanese, was due to it being misspelled by an American official in Okinawa, and he kept it.
O Hara said he “saw the light” as a teenager. “I fell severely ill with tuberculosis and pleurisy, he explained. “A Christian friend came to visit, bringing a copy of the Bible. I was enthralled. But on the verge of converting to Christianity, it dawned on me that God had promised everything to the Jews and they were his chosen.” He said that further study showed him that Christians had persecuted the Jews continuously over the past 2000 years.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
