Journal Article

“Jewish Political Circles Denounce Every Kind of Terror?” Jewish Media Response to Kristallnacht in Japanese-Controlled Harbin

FEFERMAN, KIRIL

2021

Overview

This article explores published Jewish responses to Kristallnacht as they appeared in the city of Harbin, which was controlled by Japan via the puppet entity “Manchukuo” during late 1938 and early 1939. The comments were carried mainly in the community’s weekly Evreiskaya Zhyzn’(Jewish Life) and, to a lesser extent, in Ha-Degel’(The Flag) published by the city’s Revisionist Zionists, both in Russian. The Japanese military in the Kwantung Army that ruled Manchukuo were presumably the main audience for the messages conveyed by the Harbin Jewish newspapers. Japanese perceptions of Jews reflected a growing anxiety about Soviet Russia, international communism, and their alleged links with Jews. In Harbin, these sentiments were energetically fueled by the anti-Bolshevik Russian community. More threatening, by mid-1938 the Nazi-Japanese alliance was burgeoning. This considerably raised the stakes for the Harbin Jews, who feared that the Japanese might adopt elements of Nazi antisemitic policies. Operating at a turbulent period in a volatile region, the Jewish newspapers had to self-censor their messages and carefully navigate their coverage of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass). Even so, some themes could not be avoided, most specifically Jewish resentment over the event. But the main target of this outrage, Nazi Germany, could not be called out by name. Another major issue was addressing Nazi accusations against the Jews raised in connection with Kristallnacht, even though these were not officially articulated by the Japanese. Particularly risky for the Harbin Jews was the question of how to come to terms with the alleged Jewish propensity for terror.

• Publisher: Springer Science + Business Media,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: History / Jewish people / Methodology of the Social Sciences / Religious Studies