By TSUNETAKA SATO/ Staff Writer
May 31, 2022 at 08:00 JST
TSURUGA, Fukui Prefecture--Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who served as vice consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, during World War II, is deservedly known as the “Japanese Schindler.”
But what about Saburo Nei and Yoshitsugu Tatekawa?
Now an English translation of a book by Akira Kitade is on the way to publication that features five diplomats in and outside Japan who helped thousands of Jews flee Nazi persecution in Europe during World War II, just as Sugihara did by issuing his “visas for life.”
Titled “Emerging Heroes: WWII-Era Diplomats, Jewish Refugees, and Escape to Japan,” the English version is translated from the original edition that was published in December 2020.
Kitade, 78, a freelance writer in Tokyo, has extensively studied the period in which a few individuals like Oskar Schindler, at great personal risk, ensured that many Jews would survive the Nazi Holocaust.
“How relevant officials extended a helping hand to Jewish refugees fleeing to safety is covered in great detail,” said Kitade, 78, expressing his expectations for the translation. “I hope people around the world who pick up the book will reflect on the past.”
It portrays, among other things, the accomplishments of Nei (1902-1992), the vice consul general of the Japanese Consulate General in Vladivostok, who allowed Jews to travel to Japan in defiance of a Foreign Ministry edict not to issue visas due to fears of a refugee spike, and Tatekawa (1880-1945), the Japanese ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Those also presented in the book include a Dutch consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, and a Polish ambassador to Japan. Like Sugihara, the diplomats outside Japan committed themselves to evacuating Jewish refugees to Japan and beyond but are not as famous.
Kitade, who formerly worked for the Japan National Tourism Organization, visited former refugees and their descendants in the United States and other nations to weave stories of the exodus into his book.
In the process, Kitade referred to photos of passengers of a vessel carrying Jewish evacuees between Vladivostok and Tsuruga Port in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture.
The English translation by a U.S. publisher is expected to go on sale around June.
On May 13, Kitade attended a ceremony to mark the release of the foreign language edition at the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum, which is located in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, and devoted to passing down the history of Jewish refugees who arrived there safely.
“I will derive immense pleasure if people become interested in Tsuruga after reading my book and come here,” said Kitade.
The English version will be sold at the museum as well.
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Akira Kitade shows off the soon-to-be-published English translation of his book titled “Emerging Heroes: WWII-Era Diplomats, Jewish Refugees, and Escape to Japan” in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, on May 13. (Tsunetaka Sato)
