Nagoya, Kobe, Neighboring Areas
And the Lost Tribes of Israel
Nagoya and its Neiboring Area
Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall
The Chiune Sugihara Memorial
Hall is at Yaotsu town, Gifu prefecture, about 50
km northeast of Nagoya.
It is for the memory of Chiune
Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, who saved about 6000 Jewish
refugees who had fled the persecution of Adolf Hitler.
During WWII, even under the alliance with Nazi
Germany, the Japanese did not persecute Jews, but rather saved many Jewish
lives. Not only Sugihara, but also the people like Kiichiro Higuchi, Koreshige Inuzuka and Norihiro Yasue saved many Jewish refugees. They were
soldiers of the Japanese military.
Kiichiro Higuchi saved about 20,000 (there are some views) Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany to
cross the border from USSR to Manchukuo, when he was a major general of the
Japanese army.
It was almost the same time when the ship St.
Louis with 937 Jewish refugees on board reached the USA in 1939, but was
refused to enter. They hopelessly came back to Europe and most of the Jews were
killed by the Nazi.
Why didn’t the Japanese persecute the
Jews? It seems that there was G-d’s providence on it because the Japanese and
Jews are relatives connected since ancient times.
Nagoya Castle
Nagoya castle and Oda Nobunaga
In Nagoya, there is the beautiful and huge
Nagoya Castle, at which a famous Samurai and feudal lord Oda Nobunaga
(1534-1582) was born and raised up. Nobunaga led the civil war era to end, and
paved the way for Japan to a unified nation.
There are pieces of evidence that Nobunaga was
a descendant of ancient Israelites.
He was a son of the Shinto priest of Tsurugi-jinja shrine in Fukui prefecture. His clan, the Odas, originated from the Imbe
clan. They were Shinto priests who hosted rituals, making utensils and linen
robes for emperors of Japan. They were like Levite priests. The Imbe people were also the main priests serving Ise Grand Shrine.
The Imbe clan was one
of the oldest Shinto groups who had immigrated to ancient Japan, as mentioned
in the following.
Kobe and its
Neighboring Area
Iwasaka Shinmei Shrine
Iwasaka Shinmei Shrine built by Nobunaga’s ancestors,
and an ancient high place for worship in Israel (Tel Arad)
Iwasaka Shinmei Shrine in Tokushima prefecture,
Shikoku island, is a shrine made of natural stones and
built on a hill by the Imbe clan, the ancestor of Oda
Nobunaga. It is very much like a worship place called “a high place” of ancient
Israel.
The shrine has been maintained by 75 shrine
servants of the Imbe clan. They have to keep
themselves clean and can’t take an unclean job for life. It is the same as that
the old famous Jewish synagogue in Kaifeng, China, had been maintained by 75
Jews. “75” is mentioned in the Samaritan Torah (The Torah of the northern kingdom of Israel) as the number of the people with Jacob when
they escaped to Egypt.
Iwasaka Shinmei Shrine is at the foot of a high
mountain called Mt. Tsurugi, where there is a
festival to bring up a Shinto ark, which looks very much like the ancient
Israeli ark, to the top of the mountain on July 17. It seems that it was from
the memory that the ark of Noah had rested on mountains of Ararat on the 17th
day of the 7th month (Genesis 8:4).
Shinto ark on Mt. Tsurugi
and the Israeli ark of the covenant (replica)
Awaji Island
The old structure and the stone found from there. Hebrew words are written on
it.
Awaji Island (Awaji-shima) is in the Inland Sea Seto
near Kobe. It is on the way of Mt. Tsurugi in Shikoku.
Awaji Island in the Japanese mythology was the first-created one in creation of
the Japanese Islands.
It is said that a part of the ancient
Israelites or Jews settled at Awaji Island. At Komoe
of the island is a very old artificial structure called Yudaya
Iseki, meaning Jewish relics, which was discovered in 1934. From the structure
was found a stone on which were some Hebrew words.
After WWII, Rabbi T. Rosen, a chaplain for the
General Headquarters occupying Japan, visited Awaji Island and acknowledged it
as Jewish relics. In 2017, ex-ambassador of Israel to Japan, Mr. Eli Cohen,
also visited there and said,
“I was surprised to see the Hebrew inscriptions
at the ancient Japanese structure.”
The Hebrew inscriptions could be read “gal kodesh,” meaning a holy tumulus.
Rings found from the structure
From there were also found two finger rings.
The Star of David is engraved on one of the rings, and on the other a deer, the
crest of the Naphtali tribe.
Youtube video: JEWISH
MIGRATION TO AWAJI JAPAN