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Far East Jewish Conference (China)

by António Martins

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by António Martins

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The first of three conferences of the Jewish communities in the Far East was held in Harbin in December 1937. The decor of these conferences is seen in photographs in the January 1940 issue of Ha Dagel (The Banner) which, in spite of its Hebrew title, was the Russian-language magazine of Manchukuo Revisionism. The platforms were always festooned with Japanese, Manchukuo and Zionist flags. Betarim acted as guards of honour. The meetings were addressed by such people as General Higuchi of the Japanese Military Intelligence, General Vrashevsky for the White Guards, and Manchukuo puppet officials.

I have been able to obtain a copy of "The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II", by Marvin Tokayer and Mary Schwartz, Paddington Press, 1979. That confirms that the motives of the Japanese were to try to use the Harbin and Shanghai Jewish communities to entice western investment into their "Co-Prosperity Sphere" . The book mentions Birobidzhan only as a way station for some refugees allowed transit from Europe to the Far East, and that the Japanese military regarded the building of roads in the Autonomous Region as a threat to their control of Manchuria.

There was a black and white photo in the book which confirms that the 1939 Conference (it uses that term instead of Congress) displayed three flags, hung horizontally on the wall behind the speaker's table-- in order, from the viewers' left:

Japanese;