Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 28, 2014

Though no one knows who is to blame, the discovery of these vandalized books deepens the sense that Japan is undergoing a pronounced right-wing turn

Ripped pages of Anne Frank's Diary of Young Girl are displayed at a library in Tokyo on Feb. 21, 2014

Japans slide to the political right appeared to take an alarming new twist with the discovery this month of hundreds of vandalized copies of the famed diary by Holocaust victim Anne Frank.

So far, more than 300 copies of The Diary of a Young Girl and other books related to Frank have been found with pages torn out or slashed at public libraries throughout Tokyo. Although no one has claimed responsibility, suspicion has fallen on conservative or rightist elements that have been pushing a revisionist view of Japans wartime and colonial history.

Officials in southern Japan were heavily criticized overseas this month for submitting farewell letters and other documents from World War II kamikaze pilots for inclusion in the UNESCO register of world cultural heritage.

The Frank diary, which chronicles the life of a young Jewish girl as she and her family hid from the Nazis, was added to the UNESCO heritage register in 2009.

Twenty-first century Japan is in the throes of a culture war led by right-wing reactionaries who feel emboldened under Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe, says Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies at Temple Universitys Tokyo campus. The vandalism might be a colossal coincidence, coming so close to the uproar over the kamikaze letters but I doubt it.

An Abe administration spokesman has condemned the vandalism, and Tokyo police have created a task force to investigate. Library officials said the first case was reported a year ago, but that most of the vandalism appears to have taken place this month.

Japan has little history of anti-Semitism. A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Tokyo said officials have received thousands of messages of support from Japanese citizens since reports of the vandalism surfaced.

We are convinced this is a singular act by an individual or small group and does not represent the general opinion in Japan about Anne Frank or the Holocaust. We are very thankful for the support, says spokesman Ronen Medzini. He said the embassy and local Jewish groups plan to replace all the vandalized books once a complete list is compiled. The Tokyo Metropolitan Library reported that it had already received 100 copies of the Frank diary from an unidentified donor this week.

Originally posted here:
Anne Frank's Diary Vandalized in Japan

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
Tags: