Correspondents' Correspondence
SENIGALLIA, ALBERT AXELBANK \ SILVIO F.
Correspondents' Corresppndence SiF^501^ OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. Japan vs. Israel TOKYO—Long before the Yom Kippur War,...
...ALBERT AXELBANK No More on Sunday ROME—Last November 18, an estimated 20,000 Neapolitans motored to Florence to cheer their league-leading soccer team on against the local squad...
...And the Japanese government, it will be recalled, saw fit to give condolence money to the victims' families...
...The intelligence-gathering skills of Mitsui, for example, are reputed to rival those of the CIA...
...In view of the nation's record in other areas, this expectation, that the curbs will ultimately turn into a farce, is not totally unfounded.—SILVIO F. SENI-GALLIA...
...Titles have apeared on the mystical aspects of Judaism, and one firm went so far as to publish a Japanese translation of the anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion...
...Many people here were genuinely distressed by the 1972 Lod Airport massacre, perpetrated by three Japanese terrorists...
...The lunatic fringe was also up and about, pasting posters all over Tokyo bearing the slogan "Kissinger the Jew Hates Japanese...
...To begin with, the warning lacked credibility...
...In their opinion, the oil crisis was easily foreseeable and there is no excuse for having been caught by surprise, inasmuch as Italy is particularly vulnerable to an oil shortage...
...and a handful have converted to Judaism...
...Some claim Jesus Christ once walked on Japanese soil...
...Kotsuji taught the prince Hebrew and Jewish law...
...Thus half of Italy hopes the restrictions will be revised and weakened, while the other half fears they will be unenforced and short-lived...
...The most militant trade unionists already advocate massive strikes...
...During World War II, incidentally, Kotsuji wrote a book to counter Nazi-inspired anti-Semitism in Japan...
...One prominent Japanese figure is quite well informed about Israel: Prince Mikasa, a younger brother of Emperor Hirohito...
...It noted the purported wealth of the community of several hundred Jews here, described their homes and habits, reported that some of them migrated to Japan 30-40 years ago from China and Russia, and alluded to their supposedly ethnocentric behavior...
...At the same time, it would be wrong to assume the Japanese feel a particular hostility toward Israel...
...Israel obviously cannot hope to compete with the Arabs for Japan's favor in the economic realm...
...The bureaucracy has compiled voluminous country-by-country diplomatic files, including surveys of the influence of Jewish groups in the U.S...
...Israel, meanwhile, seems ignorant of Japanese ways and has been ineffective in its attempts to mold Japanese opinion...
...True to its reputation for doing its homework thoroughly, the Japanese government probably has at its disposal more information about Israel's relations with the rest of the world than does any other nation...
...During Henry Kissinger's 1972 visit, a popular magazine ran a cover story titled "Kissinger's Jewish Style of Business...
...But a carefully constructed, sensitive public relations campaign that appealed to the conscience of individual Japanese could still win over many friends, and friends are what Israel needs most in Japan if present chilly relations between the two countries are ever to be improved...
...and elsewhere...
...Yet his name regularly appears in popular magazines as the "Jewish author" of many articles, some gossipy, others polemical...
...Israel TOKYO—Long before the Yom Kippur War, Japanese officials were well aware that the Arabs, possessing the oil that is so vital to this nation's economy, could apply tremendous pressure on them, while the Israelis had no oil and little international leverage...
...Automobile manufacturing is the nation's major industry, and this country has the largest network of superhighways in Europe...
...The Japanese people, on the other hand, generally know little about Israel and the Jews, though they are deeply curious about them...
...He began his story: "While two underprivileged Western countries, Germany and Holland, have already announced wide-ranging restrictions to cope with the oil crisis, 20,000 people from the most florid city of the wealthiest country in the European Community could afford to travel 600 miles by car to attend a football game...
...More than 50 million Japanese visited the fairgrounds, where several Arab nations maintained modest but popular pavilions...
...For example, Tel Aviv's veiled threats of economic retaliation against Tokyo's siding with the Arabs—Jewish businessmen in America and other countries, it was hinted, would boycott Japanese products—did more harm than good to Israeli interests...
...By declining to participate in the 1970 World's Fair at Osaka, evidently for financial reasons, Israel may have missed a golden opportunity to gain supporters for its cause...
...The Holy Land, Palestine and Arabia have an exotic appeal here, similar to that of the Far East for many Westerners...
...It is only fair to add that a few days later the Italian government did take drastic measures...
...In both groups there are those who predict that, as usual, everything will end up a tarallucci e vino (literally, "doughnuts and wine...
...The Communists called the curbs both unnecessary and discriminatory, asserting that instead of asking for heavy sacrifices by the general public and depriving the workers of their Sunday outings, the government should call the oilmen's bluff —any reference to Arab blackmail is being carefully avoided—since Europe and the petroleum companies cannot do without Italy's refineries...
...Indeed, Japan's pattern of trade in the Middle East, apart from oil, speaks for itself: In 1972, exports to Israel were valued at about $50 million, and imports (mostly diamonds) totaled approximately $70 million...
...Dozens of other writers are now capitalizing on the new and lucrative market Ben Dasan has opened up...
...Other Japanese newspapers and weekly magazines have carried features about alleged "Jewish Business Techniques," with headlines like "The Jewish Way of Making Money...
...Apparently recognizing the advantage they enjoyed in having the field to themselves, the Arabs subsequently employed their clout at an international gathering of police contingents here by compelling Japan to withdraw its invitation to Israel, even though the Tel Aviv representatives had already arrived...
...They have enjoyed their experiences there enough to write glowingly about them upon returning home...
...In 1971 a book entitled The Japanese and the Jews, by one Isaiah Ben Dasan, sold more than a million copies...
...In the past few years, too, thousands of Japanese youths have traveled to Israel and many have lived in kibbutzim...
...Heeding Arab blacklists of firms engaged in commerce with the Jewish State, Toyota and Nissan, two of the world's largest auto makers, have long refused to grant any franchises to car dealers in Israel...
...Il Messagero, a formerly middle-of-the-road and now stridently populist Rome daily, complained that though millionaires will still be able to drive to their palatial villas on weekdays, the workers will be confined to the gloomy cities on weekends...
...a few believe they are descendants of Israel's lost tribes...
...The austerity program met immediate opposition from the Leftwing parties and labor unions...
...Yet this has not hurt sales in the U.S., where Toyota says many of its dealers are Jewish, and these cars have even been sold in Israel through third parties...
...It banned Sunday pleasure driving, raised the price of high-test gasoline, prohibited gasoline sales from Saturday noon to midnight Sunday, and cut the supply of heating oil by 20 per cent...
...With their far-flung corporate empires, Japan's industrial giants have similarly made it a practice to ferret out relevant kinds of political and sociological data, such as the aims of American special-interest groups...
...The labor unions have been voicing doubts about the effectiveness of the restrictions, warning against their negative repercussions on the nation's economy, and threatening to take a tougher stand...
...Most of that Sunday, the traffic on Italy's North-South superhighway, the Autostrada del Sole, was nothing short of a nightmare...
...Nevertheless, many other young people in Japan today, particularly among the New Left, are being drawn to the Arab cause, and it appears they now greatly outnumber those who side with Israel...
...To this day, in fact, he has never appeared in public, not even to accept the various prizes that have been awarded him...
...He was a pupil of Japan's leading Hebrew scholar and convert to Judaism, Abraham Kotsuji, who died last October...
...Actually, the book revealed less about Jews than about the Japanese, and its sales were aided by the mystery surrounding the identity of the author, widely believed to be Japanese...
...Moderate and conservative circles, on the other hand, support the measures devised by Minister of the Treasury Ugo La Malfa, but are critical of the government's total lack of any alternative energy policy...
...The spectacle and its implications did not amuse the civic-minded sportswriter who covered the event for Milan's daily Corriere delta Sera...
...before the War ended, he had to flee to Manchuria to save his life...
...Recently Asahi Shimbun, a national daily with a circulation of 9 million, ran a series about foreigners in Japan, including a separate installment on Jews...
...the collective Arab market amounted to over $700 million...
...Some Japanese, young and old, have adopted the Moslem religion...
Vol. 57 • January 1974 • No. 1
