Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma (review)

166 SHOFAR Summer 2000 Vol. 18, No.4 Mittig compares Vol/strecker with the proposed "Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe" as instances of Vergangenheitsbewiiltigung. Somewhat more on point is Angelika Konigseder's piece on the Wehrmacht exhibit at the Hamburger Institut fUr Sozialforschung, which exploded the myth of a saubere Wehrmacht and caused a predictable uproar. It is in fact rather ironic that the Konigseder piece is followed by Alexandra Przyrembel's discussion of Victor Klemperer, since Klemperer actually upheld the honor of the Wehrmacht, which he contrasted with the evil S.S. In fact, as Przyrembel notes, Klemperer's whole life was based upon a set of assumptions about the possibility ofassimilation that Goldhagen would have ruled out "from the start" (p. 312). Finally, Harald Schmidt brings the collection to a close with a piece on the possibility of normalizing German history. In short, Geschichtswissenschafl und Offentlichkeit includes a variegated collection ofessays loosely organized around the Goldhagen controversy. One comes away with a sense that the real issue is how the professional historians of modern Germany lost control of their public to a non-historian like Goldhagen. Four reasons come to mind. In the first place, Goldhagen provided a coherent, monocausal explanation for the Holocaust. Second, he emphasized personal drama over impersonal structures. Third, he provided catharsis for ordinary Germans. Fourth, Goldhagen's Kennedyesque persona dominated the oldermen who opposed him. In the end, historical consciousness is shaped by medium as well as message. Lawrence Birken Department of History Ball State University Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma, by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998. 188 pp. $39.95. Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees is a unique and important work dealing with a subject that has not adequately been addressed in Holocaust history. Through interviews with surviving refugees and former diplomats as well as information gleaned from the files ofJewish organizations, Pamela Sakamoto explains Japan's extraordinary position with regard to Jewish refugees in the Far East. It is a little-known fact that Japan in the 1930s and 1940s sheltered Jews when most ifnot all other countries made no effort to assist them when they were desperately looking for sanctuary. Since Japan was allied with Nazi Germany it had generally-but erroneouslybeen assumed that it pursued the same antisemitic policy as its Axis partner. On the contrary, Japan not only treated Jews fairly and in the same manner as other foreigners but dealt with Jews entering Japan (or any other area under its control) strictly on the basis of existing policies. Therefore, Japanese consuls generally followed Tokyo's instructions to treat Jews like all other applicants in need of transit visas for travel to Book Reviews 167 their final destinations. This policy, and in particular the reason for Japan's interest in assisting and protecting Jews whenever practical, is the basis of Sakamoto's work. The introductory chapter describes how Jewish refugees, attempting to flee Nazi Germany and unable to find a safe haven either in the United States or any other desirable country, flooded Shanghai, China, the only place in the world not requiring any type of permit. Regrettably, this chapter, which is very familiar to this reviewer, contains a number of incorrect statements: Mass arrests occurred in Germany on November 10, not in May. Including the Polish Jews, there were at most 18,000, not 21,000, refugees "who endured the war years as visitors in Shanghai." "Within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese Navy occupied the city and the Jews fell under Japanese authority." Most Jews had settled in Hongkew, a section of the International Settlement, which had been occupied by the Japanese Naval Landing Party already since 1937. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the whole city, and not just the refugees, as stated, fell under Japanese authority. Many of the 18,000 refugees-not 24,000-had arrived penniless. Some 8,000 were fed and housed by the Committee for Assistance ofEuropean Refugees in Shanghai, also called Speelman Committee or CFA, and not the CAEFR. The committee was headed by Michel Speelman, aprominent member of the Jewish resident community, and not just...