The Japanese Race in the Nazi-German Perspective

CHAPTER 10 Racism under Negotiation: The Japanese Race in the Nazi-German Perspective

Gerhard Krebs

As a blatant racist, Hitler disliked all non-European peoples. However, he made a slight exception insofar as the Japanese were concerned. He admired their military spirit, their victory over “Slavic” Russia in 1905 and their alleged racial purity.1 In his view they were unique by virtue of their supposed complete eth- nic homogeneity in comparison with the peoples of Europe, America and the rest of Asia, who were “bastardized” and for the most part polluted by Jewish blood.2 In Mein Kampf he acknowledged that although the Japanese as a race had neither created a culture (Ger. kulturbegründend) like the Aryans, nor destroyed other cultures (kulturzerstörend) like the Jews, they had neverthe- less “adopted and made use of cultures created by others” (kulturtragend).3 He repeated that view even after coming to power in January 1933.4 The Japanese, however, did not consider it a compliment to be placed some- where between the Aryans on the one hand and the Jews and “Negroes” on

* Unpublished Documents include: AAPA = Auswärtiges Amt, Politisches Archiv: R 29452: Aufzeichnungen Staatssekretär von Bülow über Diplomatenbesuche A-K 1.4.32–31.10.33; R 85849: Abt. Pol. IV 707/3 Politische Beziehungen Deutschlands zu Japan, Vol. 5, 1.1.1933– 31.3.1934; R 85941: Abt. Pol. IV 725/4 Ostasien, Akten betreffend Pressewesen in Japan, Vol.3, January 1932-December 1934; Ser. No 82/60665–1071, Büro des Staatssekretärs, Akten betreffend Japan, Vol. 5; R 99182: Inland I-Partei; D 0002–1: Botschaft Tokyo, Zu- und Abgänge 1936– 1939; D 0002–2: Botschaft Tokyo, Zu- und Abgänge 1940–45. BA = Bundesarchiv Berlin: R 64, IV, Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft (DJG), Vol. 31; R 43II/720a, Reichskanzlei, Vol. 3; R 43II/1456a, Reichskanzlei, Vol. 2. NARA = National Archives and Record Administration, Washington, D.C.: Interrogations of Matsuoka Yosuke (March 1946) = IPS Document Nos. 4191, 4192. 1 Hitler, 1932: 173. 2 Hitler, 1932: 723–724. 3 Hitler, 1934a: 318–319. 4 Hitler, 1934b: T5.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��5 | doi ��.��63/9789004292932_011 218 Krebs the other hand in Hitler’s racial ranking.5 This explains why this passage was omitted from the first Japanese language editions of his book.6 Unsurprisingly, the Japanese grew increasingly irritated about being so obviously classified among the colored and non-Aryan peoples whom the Nazis held in con- tempt in their declarations and regulations. On 11 October 1933, the Japanese Ambassador to Berlin, Nagai Matsuzō, visited State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry (deputy minister), Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow, demanding clarifi- cation and stressing that the Japanese public could become hostile to Germany judging from their bad experience with racism in America. von Bülow tried to explain that the German prejudice was only directed towards the mixing of races, since mixed races were considered to be of lower value. His govern- ment, however, would be especially careful in avoiding any misunderstand- ings concerning the expressions criticized by Nagai.7 About ten days later, the Japanese Ambassador held an interview with Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath, once again asking if the term “colored” applied to the Japanese too and if it prohibited Japanese-German marriages. According to foreign sources, von Neurath answered that the term “colored” did not apply to the Japanese.8 Several days after Nagai’s interviews in the Foreign Ministry, a Japanese girl, the Sumitomo combine representative’s daughter, was mistreated and referred to as “colored” by German youngsters. The subsequent outcry in the Japanese press led to a great deal of embarrassment and resulted in a protest filed by Ambassador Nagai and a subsequent apology from Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath.9 The same interpretation given to Ambassador Nagai by the Foreign Ministry and suggesting that Germany held no prejudices against other races but merely opposed the mixing of races, was repeatedly used and mentioned in publications and statements made in subsequent years. In Mein Kampf, Hitler expressed the conviction that the mixing of races would result in the depreciation of racial value, since the “lower” race would devalue the “superior” race and, unlike “pure” races, weaken the offspring and

5 Bella Fromm, a German journalist who sought asylum in the USA as a Jew in 1938, observed that Japanese Ambassador Ōshima repeatedly stressed the similarity between Japan’s national ideology and Nazi Germany’s, and commented that the Nazis were doing their best to make the yellow men forget that Hitler’s racial theories classed them with the Jews and Negroes (Fromm 1943: 147–148). 6 For the different Japanese language editions of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, see Matsushita, 1989: 78–83; Iwamura 2005: 141–167. 7 Bülow’s memo, 11 October 1933, AAPA, R 29452. 8 Furuya, 1995: 27–28. 9 Furuya, 1995: 30–31; Conversation between Japanese Embassy Counsellor Fujii and the DJG (Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft), 21 November 1933 (BA, R 64, IV, Vol. 31); Ambassador Voretzsch’ tel. 6 October, 1933 (AAPA, R 85849). Draft of a report prepared for President von Hindenburg, 12 December 1933, ADAP C II, 1, no. 123.