[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 121, Issue 36

[n.spencer at risingsun.co.uk]

Hi,
I think it possible, even likely that some people of Jewish origin arrived in Korea via Japan during the Second World War.
About 30 years ago, I was taught how to translate Japanese patents by a German, Jewish gentleman who managed as a young man of age 17-18 in about 1937-38, to be lucky enough to get a transfer to Japan from Germany, if I remember rightly, in some kind of press role. 
I don’t think that it can be safely said that he, brave as he was to embark on such a journey at that age, was the only one who managed to escape via that kind of route.
I have done a quick search on Google, and it seems that quite a few Jewish people managed to escape to Japan from Continental Europe, even after the war started, and may be one or two would have ended up in Korea??
Kind regards,
Nick Spencer



From: Bill Streifer 
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 5:35 PM
To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com 
Subject: Re: [KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 121, Issue 36

Nicolas,


I'm sure this is not what you meant, but I am aware of only one  Jew in Korea during WWII. 


As you may know, there were no American personnel on the ground in all of Korea throughout the war. And it is safe to say that none of the Germans geologists and scientists in northern Korea at that time were Jewish. The only possibilities of Jews in northern Korea that I am aware of is a Jewish airman named Arthur Strilky whose B-29 Superfortress bomber (while on a POW supply mission to Hungnam) was shot down by Soviet Yak fighters a few days before the Japanese signed the instrument of surrender on September 2, 1945. Another possibility -- that I could check -- is that some of the 354 British and Australians (and a Canadian doctor) at that POW camp might have been Jewish.


Bill



__________________________________________

  Dear All,

  I'm looking for information regarding the Jewish community in Korea during the Japanese Occupation. Do some of you have some stuff regarding this issue ? Or maybe any kind of advices ?

  Thanks you in advance

  Kind Regards,

  Nicolas
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