visas & virtue

[Jean W. Williams]

On Mon, 13 Apr 1998, Alan Kita wrote:

>   The East Coast Jewsish groups were
> highly critical of the use of "concentration camps" and proceeded to
> block the opening of the exhibit through the courts, public opinion,
> etc.  In the end, the name of the exhibition remained the
> same...afterall, the West Coast Jewish groups understood

I am not sure this is an accurate assessment of the politics of the issue.

Year before last, I attended three Sugihara related events in NYC.  The
first was held at the headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League and
featured prominent Jewish scholars who first researched and published on
the subject as well as Holocaust survivors (by no means restricted to
"Sugihara Jews").

The second event was a more public commemoration held at Town Hall which
included various politicians (one prominent Asian American from Hawaii -
Patsy Mink; as well as the Japanese consulate) and, notably, one of the
big sponsors of the event, the Holocaust Oral History Project, which is
headquartered in San Francisco.

In addition, I went to the photo exhibition (in conjunction with Mrs.
Sugihara's book launch - also the commemoration was tied into the book
launch) at the Nippon Club (across the street from Carnegie Hall).  The
Holocaust Oral History Project was also a major sponsor of that event and
had a very visible live presence at the exhibtion.

There were complicated politics and competing interests involved in these
various event.  Suffice it to say, there were at
times audible gasps from various contingents in the audience.  Neither
Japanese, Japanese-American nor Jewish myself, I really didn't feel that
the event was designed with me as the Ideal Spectator in mind.

Jean Williams
jqw3827 at is2.nyu.edu