Anne Frank's Diary vandalised in Tokyo libraries

[webfact]

JAPAN
Anne Frank's Diary vandalised in Tokyo libraries

Agence France Presse


Photo : AnneFrank.com

TOKYO: -- Scores of copies of Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" kept in public libraries across Tokyo have been vandalised, officials said Friday, sparking alarm amid a rightward shift in Japan's politics.

Pages in at least 250 copies of the diary or publications containing biographies on Anne Frank, Nazi persecution of Jews and related materials have been torn, the council of public libraries in the capital said.

More than a dozen books have also been damaged at libraries in two other nearby areas, media reported.

"We have complaints from five of (Tokyo’s 23) wards so far but I don’t yet know exactly how many libraries are affected," Satomi Murata, the head of the council, told AFP. "We don’t know why this happened or who did it.

"Each book had 10-20 pages torn out, leaving it unusable," said Kaori Shiba, the archives director at the central library in Shinjuku ward, where 39 books were vandalised at three libraries.

Toshihiro Obayashi, deputy director of the central library in the Suginami area, said 119 books have been damaged at 11 of its 13 public libraries, adding nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Each and every book, which comes up under the index of Anne Frank, has been damaged at our library," Obayashi said.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the US-based international Jewish rights group, said on its website it was shocked and concerned.

"The geographic scope of these incidents strongly suggest an organised effort to denigrate the memory of the most famous of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in the World War II Holocaust," Abraham Cooper, the centre’s associate dean, said in a statement.

"Only people imbued with bigotry and hatred would seek to destroy Anne’s historic words of courage, hope and love in the face of impending doom," Cooper added. "We are calling on Japanese authorities to step up efforts to identify and deal with the perpetrators of this hate campaign."

The diary, written by a Jewish girl who lived in Amsterdam during the time of the Holocaust, was added to the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Memory of the World Register in 2009.

Yasumi Iwakami, a freelance journalist who writes on social causes in Japan, tweeted there had been sporadic "delusional" arguments about the existence of a Jewish conspiracy surrounding the Holocaust.

"But violence has not presented itself to this extent before," he said, calling the incidents the "advent of crude anti-Semitism."

The spree comes amid criticism of a rightwards shift in Japanese politics under nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with a recent volley of provocative comments about Japan’s wartime past that have sparked accusations of revisionism by China and South Korea.

Largely homogenous Japan does not have a very big Jewish community, with the vast majority of people believing in an admixture of imported Buddhism and indigenous Shintoism.

-- The Nation 2014-02-21

[FiftyTwo]

Who cares about copies?

Make some more.

[richard_smith237]

Who cares about copies?

Make some more.

You appear to be missing the point... by a country mile.

The fact that these are copies is irrelevant, its the troubling nature of what appears to be an organised right wing organisation and the manner in which it has acted such that it may be gaining in strength.

[harrycallahan]

Be annoying to read most of it and not find out how it ends.

[7by7]

Three replies so far; two of them totally missing the point, one of which is only a fatuous attempt at a joke.

I despair of TV members at times.

[Jingthing]

Libraries. Plural. There you go. Obviously not the original.

Antisemitism is an odd thing. It even crops up in countries with almost NO Jews.

[7by7]

Three replies so far; two of them totally missing the point, one of which is only a fatuous attempt at a joke.

I despair of TV members at times.

The thread title is a little misleading.

The difference between destroying an important historical document and defacing a copy are two entirely different things. But, of course, the thread title was deliberately designed in order to generate the most shock possible.

As already said:-

Who cares about copies?

Make some more.

You appear to be missing the point... by a country mile.

The fact that these are copies is irrelevant, its the troubling nature of what appears to be an organised right wing organisation and the manner in which it has acted such that it may be gaining in strength.

If that is too complex for you to understand, I can't find a simpler way of explaining it to you.

Edited to remove machine code which seems to have crept in.

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been removed. Please stay on topic.

[lungmi]

Anne Frank's Diary is in some way a document of Humanity.

Japanese old fascism wants to upgrade the army against the conflicts with China.

[Suradit69]

Three replies so far; two of them totally missing the point, one of which is only a fatuous attempt at a joke.

I despair of TV members at times.

I despair of TV members at times.

Had it happened in Thailand this thread would now be over 10 pages long with all the old ladies on TV deploring the Thai education system and blaming it all on Thai culture.

Had it happened in the US there would have been surprise expressed (even by Americans) that there were still libraries in the US.

Had it happened in Europe it would have been blamed on immigrants whose last names were suspiciously non-European sounding.

And of course in Russia it would be attributed to the robust industry dedicated to continually revising history in order to assure compliance with current sensitivities.

[krisb]

Libraries. Plural. There you go. Obviously not the original.

Antisemitism is an odd thing. It even crops up in countries with almost NO Jews.

What's ALMOST no jews mean?

1 maybe 2?

Antisemite blah blah blah.

[GentlemanJim]

Who cares about copies?

Make some more.

You appear to be missing the point... by a country mile.

The fact that these are copies is irrelevant, its the troubling nature of what appears to be an organised right wing organisation and the manner in which it has acted such that it may be gaining in strength.

Three replies so far; two of them totally missing the point, one of which is only a fatuous attempt at a joke.

I despair of TV members at times.

Libraries. Plural. There you go. Obviously not the original. alt=thumbsup.gif width=25 height=19>

Antisemitism is an odd thing. It even crops up in countries with almost NO Jews.

Yes, i too despair of TV members sometimes. Right wing organizations, anti-semitism (God we haven't had to dance around that may-pole on here for a while) blah blah blah. I was also very concerned when I read the headline, thinking that a great historic document had somehow been partly destroyed. But...it's copies of the book, whew! Being in Japan, where few people are even educated correctly about WWII it is likely to be a single nutter going around doing this, and looking at the subject matter it could have been anytime. I doubt Ann Franks diaries are on the top ten loan lists of any of the libraries. Yet here we have the Simon Wiesenthal Center proclaiming 'shock' and folks claiming anti-semitism when I bet 999/1000 japanese could not tell you what anti-semitism is for a million dollars. What I want to know is what pages are ripped out? Is it all the same ones if so what are those pages, or is it random, but as for the growth of right wing organizations and the AS line, give it up please folks.

[BookMan]

Who cares about copies?

Make some more.

You appear to be missing the point... by a country mile.

The fact that these are copies is irrelevant, its the troubling nature of what appears to be an organised right wing organisation and the manner in which it has acted such that it may be gaining in strength.

Jeez, where does this major right wing anti-Anne Frank mobilization conspiracy theory come from?

It could well be a couple of anti-semite whackos travelling around doing all the damage.

Personally I hope something similar happens with James Patterson novels.

i'd like to hear more facts about the case before leaping to assumptions.

[krisb]

Who cares about copies?

Make some more.

You appear to be missing the point... by a country mile.

The fact that these are copies is irrelevant, its the troubling nature of what appears to be an organised right wing organisation and the manner in which it has acted such that it may be gaining in strength.

Jeez, where does this major right wing anti-Anne Frank mobilization conspiracy theory come from?

It could well be a couple of anti-semite whackos travelling around doing all the damage.

Personally I hope something similar happens with James Patterson novels.

i'd like to hear more facts about the case before leaping to assumptions.

The 'Anne Frank" brigade

[Jingthing]

Yeah, of course, it wasn't motivated by anti-semitism.

It was motivated by anti-DUTCH sentiments! Scratch that. Anti-TEENAGE GIRL sentiments! Scratch that. Anti-SMALL APARTMENT DWELLER sentiments!

Scratch that. Anti-DIARY sentiments!

[Jingthing]

Libraries. Plural. There you go. Obviously not the original.

Antisemitism is an odd thing. It even crops up in countries with almost NO Jews.

What's ALMOST no jews mean?

1 maybe 2?

Antisemite blah blah blah.

Why the mocking tone? What are you trying to actually say?

According to Wiki, an estimated 2000 people out of 127 MILLION.

Does that not sound like ALMOST none to you? Especially considering probably most are expats?

[geriatrickid]

The odd aspect of the story is that the Japanese treatment of Jews during WWII was considerably better than that extended by Europeans. The Japanese allowed Jewish refugees into occupied China and they refused to deport the Jews to the death camps despite the German government's repeated demands. The motives may have been somewhat twisted, but it worked out for those who gained refuge albeit in the horrific ghettos that the Japanese eventually created. There are multiple scholarly articles on the subject and I believe that UCLA has an extensive archive of documents from that era. Out of that terrible period came some rather brilliant scientists, musicians and physicians who would not have gone on to serve humanity had the Japanese followed through with the deportation orders. If anything, the Anne Frank story fits into the superiority myth of the Japanese right wing faction, as it can be used to "attest" to the humanity and compassion of the Japanese occupational forces in China vs. the behaviour of many European nations.

[Jingthing]

That is true. Ironically Axis power Japan was seen a a refuge target by fleeing Jews during WW2 but of course China was more popular.

[Scott]

Troll posts and replies have been deleted.

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been deleted. Please stay on topic.

[Dap]

Who cares about copies?

Make some more.

It's not about the "copies". More copies, more destruction?

It's about why this is being done. Get a clue mate.

[Dap]

Be annoying to read most of it and not find out how it ends.

Harry! From past experience, this ain't your usual style.

[Dap]

Yeah, of course, it wasn't motivated by anti-semitism.

It was motivated by anti-DUTCH sentiments! Scratch that. Anti-TEENAGE GIRL sentiments! Scratch that. Anti-SMALL APARTMENT DWELLER sentiments!

Scratch that. Anti-DIARY sentiments!

Well said JT

[transam]

The lady in question is one of the bravest humans I have ever read about. An icon to us all who faced death at every turn. The world should bow to her and her struggle. Those who deface her words are cowards with no idea of the human struggle against a murderous adversary.

[Scott]

Off-topic and troll posts along with replies have been deleted.

Even though the trolls are having a feeding frenzy in this thread, please don't throw them more meat to feed on.

[Jingthing]

Being "sensitive" to holocaust denial propaganda links being promoted as reasoned academic debate is very defensible.

That said, I'm also not sure what really needs to be said about this topic that isn't toally obvious.

The vandalism of the books is clearly motivated by anti-semitism.

Japan has never had a major problem with antisemitism but here is a case of it. There is no reason to think Japan is on the brink of becoming an anti-semitic hotbed now either.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center reacted as one would expect to an incident like this anywhere in the world.

There she wrote.

[transam]

Wish I could post photos here that the lady was fighting to prevent. It will shock most of you to what inhumanity had inflicted on defenseless humans.

I will if admin permits. The fun posters here will retire from the thread, am sure.

[7by7]

I bet most Japanese don't even know what Jewish is.

I doubt that most Japanese are as ignorant as you think.

But it's obvious to anyone with an ounce of common that the perpetrator(s) of this crime did not choose this particular book at random; this is not a case of simple vandalism.

The Nazis burnt books they disapproved of; these people are starting down that road.

[FiftyTwo]

I bet most Japanese don't even know what Jewish is.

I doubt that most Japanese are as ignorant as you think.

But it's obvious to anyone with an ounce of common that the perpetrator(s) of this crime did not choose this particular book at random; this is not a case of simple vandalism.

The Nazis burnt books they disapproved of; these people are starting down that road.

Japan is heading down the Nazi road??

[Jingthing]

I'm not really worried about antisemitism in Japan. What are they going to do ... kick out their 2000 Jews, who are mostly not even Japanese? No, they won't even do that. The Jews of Japan will be fine. I think some people are negatively reacting to the predictable response from the Wiesenthal Center. Perhaps it could be argued that incidents like that would be better ignored when it is clear they don't mean very much. Incidents like this are much more important in countries like France, where the much more numerous Jews there have been feeling the heat of antisemitism so much in recent years that large portions have felt not welcome to live there anymore.