I BEHIND THE HEADLINES WE ARE PLEASED TO PRESENT A THREE PERSON SHOW Japanese Anti-Semitism Seen As Anti-American FEATURING: JIM CRAWFORD Sculpture PATRICK FOLEY Painting MONICA MOLINARO Painting EXHIBITION JANUARY 9-FEBRUARY 3 RECEPTION FOR THE ARTISTS SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 7-9 P.M. GALLERY 214 WEST SIXTH STREET, ROYAL OAK, MI 48067 PHONE (313) 546-3365 CONTEMPORARY ARTS DETROIT HEAR WELL AGAIN! 'm not deaf • • • I just can't understand some words" IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE HEARING IN A CROWD OR WHEN MORE THAN ONE PERSON IS TALKING, YOU MIGHT BE A CANDIDATE FOR THIS ALL-IN-EAR ELECTRONIC HEARING AID ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR NERVE DEAFNESS WEAR HOME THE SAME BAY. NO WAITING TO TRY IT OUT! • SPECIAL PRICE ONLY $199 One Of The Smallest Hearing Aids! Designed For Nerve Deafness To 40 DB. Model E-50 Complete With 1 Year Warranty NO CORDS! NO TUBES! NO WIRES! 30-DAY TRIAL AVAILABLE FOR A FREE HEARING TEST & DEMONSTRATION WED. I THURS. MON. TUES. FRI. SAT. JAN. 8 I JAN. 9 I JAN. 11 I JAN. 12 I JAN. 13 JAN. 14 All brands, makes & models available THE TRUSTED NAME FOR BETTER HEARING SINCE 1954 GEORGE IWANOW HEARING AID CENTERS ALLEN PARK OFFICE 14551 Southfield Rd. Ground Floor Location — West of Dix 382-7664 44 FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1988 228° 83HiiiieNF AELD GROUND FLOOR—SW CORNER OF 9 MILE BLUE CROSS-BLUE SHIELD PROVIDERS AUDIOLOGISTS ON STAFF CLINICAL RECOMMENDATION AUTO WORKERS HMO-PPO MOST INSURANCES 559-9130 Call For Appointment HARPER WOODS OFFICE 17800 E. Eight Mile Eastland Center Professional Bdg. 371-9200 SUSAN BIRNBAUM legitimate," according to Goodman. In If You Understand T Judea, You Can Understand the World, Uno blames the he "rising tide" of anti-Semitic literature in Japan, a nation with an estimated 1,000 Jews, is less an expression of religious intolerance than of anti-American sentiments caused by the import-export "trade war? So contends Prof. Masao Kunihiro, a prominent scholar and media personali- ty in Japan exceptionally familiar with Judaism and Jews. He spoke at a recent symposium at the Japan Society in New York on "Japan's Perception of the Jews." He was joined by David Goodman, associate professor of Japanese and comparative literature at the University of Illinois. Kunihiro scored modern Japanese society for its cur- rent trend to lash back at the United States. The Jews, he said, may well be the scapegoats for this current anger at America. The reason for singling out the Jews, ac- cording to his analysis, is firmly rooted in Europe and Nazism, not in opinions of Israel or the Middle East conflict. The anti-Semitism is manifested primararily in a "spate of anti-Semitic literature," which Kunihiro called a serious phenomenon with a history at least as old as the first Japanese transla- tion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1924. The translation has been "a staple since then in the Japanese right wing," he added. In March, the Anti- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith called a meeting with the Japanese ambassador to the United States, Nubuo Matsunago, because of press reports in the United States regarding a prevalence in Japan of anti-Semitic books by a popular Japanese author, Masami Uno. Uno writes that Japan's re- cent economic problems are due to a conspiracy by "na- tional Jewish capital" con- trolling major American cor- porations such as IBM, General Motors, Exxon, Stan- dard Oil, Ford, Chrysler and AT and T Uno, who is also a fun- damentalist Christian and head of an Osaka-based organization called the Mid- dle East Problems Research Center, addresses rallies of hundreds of Japanese. The audiences are "very Jews for causing the Great Depression in the United States and argues that Jews are planning another depres- sion for the 1990s. In If You Understand Judea, You Can Understand Japan, he disclaims the number of Jews killed in World War II. By last March, the two books had sold 650,000 copies. Other such authors have pro- posed similar theories. Kunihiro, who has an almost uncanny grasp of idiomatic English, decried the ignorance in Japan of the Shoah — using at all times the Hebrew word for the Nazi Holocaust — and of Japanese history in general, with a tendency toward revisionism. He noted that anti- Semitism in Japan probably has nothing to do with religion. Japan, he maintain- ed, has no history of religious intolerance, but rather a preference for syncretism, a union of many religions. Kunihiro said an American Jew doing graduate work in Japan made a study of Japanese/foreign language dictionaries. She found "32 decidedly anti-Semitic ex- planations" in the definitions, the scholar said. "Some of the explanations were so bigoted and biased she felt sure they were related to Nazi literature." He provided no examples. why the Jews? Kunihiro conjectured that "we have picked on the Jews because we have always considered them to be so intellectually superior, and therefore have the ability to wage a worldwide conspiracy." Uno, he said, usually believes he is complimenting the Jews by believing that they will suc- ceed in such a "plot." Japan is by no means "Simon-pure" regarding discrimination, said Kunihiro. He specifically listed Japanese atrocities against the Chinese, and discrimination against Koreans born in and living in Japan. Goodman suggested that America, and American Jews, regard this "very disturbing phenomenon" as a "window of opportunity" rather than a "closed door." These anti-Semitic books, said Goodman, are "just the end of a long line of anti- Semitism." However, he also