SDHF Newsletter No.325 Higuchi’s Congratulatory Address to First Far-East Jewish Conference

Higuchi’s Congratulatory Address to First Far-East Jewish Conference

Newsletter No. 324 stated that Lieutenant General Higuchi Kiichiro saved 20,000 Jewish refugees when he was chief of the Harbin Special Agency and that Higuchi is inscribed in the Golden Book in Jerusalem, fourth from the top as “Great humanitarian General Higuchi,” among great Jews, such as Moses, Mendelssohn and Einstein.

He gave his congratulations to the first Far Eastern Jewish Conference held in Harbin, Manchuria on December 26, 1937. It is very a lofty address:

Lieut. Higuchi’s Congratulatory Address:

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The Conference chaired by Dr. A. Kaufman, president of the Hebrew Association of Harbin

adopted the following decision:

The Jewish people’s co-wishes that Japan and Manchuria regard this conference as the only representative organization, and provide sufficient help to form it in order to protect the Jewish people’s interests.

The First Council of the Jewish communities proposes to all the Jewish people that we perform our duties to Japan and Manchuria and do our best, alongside the Japanese and Manchurian people, to assist the large family–like national policy which is Japan’s and Manchuria’s mission in the Far East.

(From documents in the Diplomatic Archives Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.)

Then on December 6, 1938, the “Outline of Policy Toward the Jewish Nation at the Current Situation” was adopted as national policy at the Five-Minister Conference:

Outline of Policy Toward the Jewish Nation at the Current Situation:

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It should be recognized that under such background Sugihara Chiune issued “Visa of Life” to Jewish refugees in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1940.

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Acting Chairman
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact