The Fugu Plan

If someone who is rich and powerful comes to you for a favor, you don't persecute him -- you help him. Having such a person indebted to you is a great insurance policy. There was one nation that did treat the Jews as if they were powerful and rich. The Japanese never had much exposure to Jews, and knew very little about them. In 1919 Japan fought alongside the anti-Semitic White Russians against the Communists. At that time the White Russians introduced the Japanese to the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". The Japanese studied the book and, according to all accounts, naively believed its propaganda. Their reaction was immediate and forceful -- they formulated a plan to encourage Jewish settlement and investment into Manchuria. People with such wealth and power as the Jews possess, the Japanese determined, are exactly the type of people with whom we want to do business! The Japanese called their plan for Jewish settlement "The Fugu Plan". The fugu is a highly poisonous blowfish. After the toxin-containing organs are painstakingly removed, it is used as a food in Japan, and is considered an exquisite delicacy. If it is not prepared carefully, however, its poison can kill a person. The Japanese saw the Jews as a nation with highly valuable potential, but, as with the fugu, in order to take advantage of that potential, they had to be extremely careful. Otherwise, the Japanese thought, the plan would backfire and the Jews would annihilate Japan with their awesome power. The Japanese were allies of the Nazis, yet they allowed thousands of European refugees -- including the entire Mirrer Yeshivah -- to enter Shanghai and Kobe during World War II. They welcomed these Jews into their country, not because they bore any great love for the Jews, but because they believed that Jews had access to enormous resources and amazingly influential power, which could greatly benefit Japan. If anti-Semites truly believe that Jews rule the world, why don't they all relate to Jews like the Japanese did? The fact that Jews are generally treated as outcasts proves that people do not really believe that Jews are anywhere near as wealthy or powerful as they claim. It proves that anti-Semites do not take their own propaganda seriously.

If someone who is rich and powerful comes to you for a favor, you dont persecute him -- you help him. Having such a person indebted to you is a great insurance policy. There was one nation that did treat the Jews as if they were powerful and rich. The Japanese never had much exposure to Jews, and knew very little about them. In 1919 Japan fought alongside the anti-Semitic White Russians against the Communists. At that time the White Russians introduced the Japanese to the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". The Japanese studied the book and, according to all accounts, naively believed its propaganda. Their reaction was immediate and forceful -- they formulated a plan to encourage Jewish settlement and investment into Manchuria. People with such wealth and power as the Jews possess, the Japanese determined, are exactly the type of people with whom we want to do business! The Japanese called their plan for Jewish settlement "The Fugu Plan". The fugu is a highly poisonous blowfish. After the toxin-containing organs are painstakingly removed, it is used as a food in Japan, and is considered an exquisite delicacy. If it is not prepared carefully, however, its poison can kill a person. The Japanese saw the Jews as a nation with highly valuable potential, but, as with the fugu, in order to take advantage of that potential, they had to be extremely careful. Otherwise, the Japanese thought, the plan would backfire and the Jews would annihilate Japan with their awesome power. The Japanese were allies of the Nazis, yet they allowed thousands of European refugees -- including the entire Mirrer Yeshivah -- to enter Shanghai and Kobe during World War II. They welcomed these Jews into their country, not because they bore any great love for the Jews, but because they believed that Jews had access to enormous resources and amazingly influential power, which could greatly benefit Japan. If anti-Semites truly believe that Jews rule the world, why dont they all relate to Jews like the Japanese did? The fact that Jews are generally treated as outcasts proves that people do not really believe that Jews are anywhere near as wealthy or powerful as they claim. It proves that anti-Semites do not take their own propaganda seriously.

This book discusses the Fugu Plan, a plan virtually unheard of when this book was first published in 1979. That short-lived plan was personified by Chiune Sugihara. From November 1939 to September 1940, Sugihara was officially the Japanese consul in Kovno (or 'Kaunas'), Lithuania. In reality, Sugihara had been sent to Kovno to gather intelligence about Soviet and German troop movements in the area. Because he was there, however, and because of who he was, Sugihara became one of the crucial players in the fugu plan--a scheme that, by the war's end, would save the lives of thousands of Jews, as well as the entire Mir Yeshiva, whose scholars would survive to inspire a new era of Jewish learning in the U.S. and Israel.

Japan was a party to the Axis Alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. However, it ignored repeated German demands to harm the 40,000 Jews who found themselves under Japanese occupation during World War Two. This book attempts to answer why they behaved in a relatively humane fashion towards the Jews.

There is a missing page in Jewish history. We tend to assume that Jewish history is to be found in the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and the Americas -- but not in the Far East. This book has discovered that missing page, revealing the amazing stories of Jews who both benefited from and contributed to the Far East. You will read about the "uncrowned Jewish king of China", the indefatigable World War II refugees in Kobe, and the baseball player who became an American spy in Japan, as well as the Jew who served as Singapore's first prime minister, the amusing comedy of errors surrounding the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, and the extraordinary tale of the sixteenth-century Marranophysician in India. Jewish contributors to Eastern music and the Jewish members of Mao Zedong's circle also have their stories told. Consummate storyteller Marvin Tokayer, Lifetime Honorary Rabbi of Japan's Jewish community, draws on a lifetime of personal experiences and a wealth of knowledge as he, in concert with writer and television producer Dr Ellen Rodman, weaves together the characters and history of the Jews of the Far East into this fascinating book.