Nazis Flood Japan with Anti-semitic Propaganda

One of the by-products of the Japanese “anti-Communist” agreement with Germany has been a flood of Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda into the Nipponese empire that, so far, has had little effect on the population.

The militaristic and nationalist groups take the propaganda seriously only because it comes from Germany, but they are too busy with other things to take up the “Jewish problem.” And so they send on most of the propaganda to Manchukuo, where the Fascist “Soo-Kay-Kow,” headed by Russian White Guardists, reproduce it.

The Japanese masses do not understand Julius Streicher’s and Paul Joseph Goebbels’ dicta on anti-Semitism, while the intelligentsia, for the most part, rejects it. There are only 400 Jewish families in Japan; they are found in the cities of Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama, Kakadoto and Kakaido. Most of them are citizens of other countries and they are regarded as occupying a useful place in Japan’s foreign trade.

In Manchukuo, under the influence of White Russian emigres, anti-Semitism has obtained a foothold. In Harbin it is centralized in the well-organized “Central and Russian Fascist Organization,” headed by Rozievsky, a former Soviet citizen who came to Harbin in 1927 from Blagovstschensk.

In the rest of Japan, anti-Semitism, while not very effective, has had certain influence. Material reproduced from Streicher’s Jew-baiting German paper, Der Stuermer, has caused some to develop antipathies toward the Jews. Among clerical and Fascist groups there are some Japanese attempting to create hatred of the Jews. A few have become adherents of the theories of Streicher, Goebbels and Alfred Rosenberg.

For some time Jewish arrivals at the frontier control-points have been asked their nationality–specifically, whether they are Jews. It has been found that Jews wishing to live in Japan have been watched secretly. Japanese Jews are not absorbed in businesses where they are likely to compete with or oust Japanese.

Most of the Jews living in Japan represent foreign trading firms, owners of export concessions or do similar work. They live separately and have not formed a united group. They include American, British, and Dutch Jews, with a scattering from Iraq, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Russia, Poland and Lithuania.

The Jews are fairly well off economically. There are practically no unemployed among them. But spiritually their lot is not so happy, for they have no clubs, communities or assemblies, no semblance of communal life.