Why are the Japanese fascinated with the Jews? By showing that the modern attitude is the result of a process of accretion begun 200 years ago, this book describes the development behind Japanese ideas of Jews and how these images are reflected in their modern intellectual life

"Few peoples have drawn the 'us' and 'them' line so clearly and maintained it for so long." —From The Jews and the Japanese It is difficult to imagine two more widely different—almost incompatible—societies than those of the Jews and the Japanese: a people spread over the four corners of the world versus a people with an almost uninterrupted history of sovereignty in its own land: geographical heterogeneity versus linguistic and cultural homogeneity; a cosmopolitan experience versus an island mentality; strict religious and moral commandments versus group–based and aesthetically bound values. Yet, there are also surprising analogies between these two peoples. It is this extraordinary combination of similarities and differences that are explored. In The Jews and the Japanese, Professor Shillony describes how these two peoples, both rich in cultural heritage and historical experiences, have interacted with the Christian West, their outstanding achievements and immense tragedies, and their attempts to integrate with the West and its repeated rejection of them.

Japanese religious scholar and author Yuji Sano describes fascinating historic links between Jewish theology and Shinto mythology, along with uncovered tantalising clues indicating that the God of the New Testament is a different deity than the God of the Old Testament. Alternative sources are mined to expose stunning topographic changes, effecting major global land masses set to occur in 2010 that could offer the basis for a renewal of the former close Jewish connections to Japan.

Japan was a party to the Axis Alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. However, it ignored repeated German demands to harm the 40,000 Jews who found themselves under Japanese occupation during World War Two. This book attempts to answer why they behaved in a relatively humane fashion towards the Jews.

Jews in Japan: Presence and Perception. Antisemitism, Philosemitism and International Relations is a study on the history of real and imagined Jews in Japan, which discusses the little known cultural, political and economic ties between Jews and Japan, and follows the evolution of Jewish stereotypes in Japan in the last century and a half. The book begins with the arrival of Jews and their image in late 19th to early 20th-century Japan, when the seeds of later stereotyped visions were sown. The discussion then focuses on wartime Japan, delving into the complex and mixed attitudes of the Japanese Empire toward Jews. In postwar Japan, the partial reception of the Holocaust intertwined with earlier antisemitic and philosemitic manifestations, resulting in instances of both hatred and admiration toward Jews. Finally, the book explores the recent reframing of Japanese-Jewish historical encounters within the context of the growing ties between Japan and Israel. This study sheds new light on the little explored relations between Jews and Japan, offering thought-provoking insights into the coexistence of antisemitism and philosemitism, the political and diplomatic uses of Jewish history, and the perpetuation of Jewish stereotypes in a land devoid of a local Jewish population.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 36. Chapters: Ambassadors of Israel to Japan, Israeli expatriates in Japan, Japanese Jews, Japanese rabbis, Jewish Japanese history, Chiune Sugihara, Shanghai Ghetto, Jewish settlement in Imperial Japan, History of the Jews in Japan, History of the Jews in Kobe, A Jewish Girl in Shanghai, Israel-Japan relations, Abraham Kaufman, Norihiro Yasue, Antisemitism in Japan, Seishir Itagaki, Yoshisuke Aikawa, Koreshige Inuzuka, Richie Scheinblum, Rachel Factor, An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus, Visas and Virtue, Michael Schudrich, Beate Sirota, Kiichiro Higuchi, Ayako Fujitani, Simon Kaspe, Karl Lowith, Delia Sherman, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Jack Halpern, Eli Cohen, Fumiko Kometani, Arie Selinger, Setsuzo Kotsuji, Mir yeshiva. Excerpt: Chiune Sugihara Sugihara Chiune, 1 January 1900 - 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland or residents of Lithuania. Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives. In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations for his actions. Chiune Sugihara was born January 1, 1900, in Yaotsu, a rural area in Gifu Prefecture of the Chubu region to a middle-class father, Yoshimi Sugihara ( Sugihara Yoshimi), and Yatsu Sugihara ( Sugihara Yatsu), a samurai-class mother. He was the second son among five boys and one girl. In 1912, he graduated with top honors from Furuwatari Elementary School, and entered Daigo Chugaku founded by Aichi prefecture (now Zuiryo high...

Tudor Parfitt examines a myth which is based on one of the world's oldest mysteries - what happened to the lost tribes of Israel? Christians and Jews alike have attached great importance to the legendary fate of these tribes which has had a remarkable impact on their ideologies throughout history. Each tribe of Israel claimed descent from one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the land of Israel was eventually divided up between them. Following a schism which formed after the death of Solomon, ten of the tribes set up an independent northern kingdom, whilst those of Judah and Levi set up a separate southern kingdom. In 721BC the ten northern tribes were ethnically cleansed by the Assyrians and the Bible states they were placed: in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the city of Medes. The Bible also foretold that one day they would be reunited with the southern tribes in the final redemption of the people of Israel. Their subsequent history became a tapestry of legend and hearsay. The belief persisted that they had been lost in some remote part of the world and there were countless suggestions and claims as to where.