著者

Mina Muraoka

出版者

関東学院大学人文学会

雑誌

関東学院大学人文学会紀要 (ISSN:21898987)

巻号頁・発行日

no.144, pp.29-44,

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This study explores the nature of American Jewish effort to rescue Russian Jewish refugees in the Far East during 1917-18. Although the issues surrounding the Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe during World War I are frequently addressed among historians, very little is known about the condition of Jewish refugees in the Far East during the Russian Civil War. During the war, that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917, Jews continued to suffer as a consequence of internal strife. Between 1917-1918, 1,706 refugees arrived to Japan via Siberia and Manchuria. As it was reported that their condition was most deplorable from every standpoint, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America, an American Jewish philanthropic organization, took up the matter and sent Samuel Mason, a member of the Board of Directors, to Japan to assist these refugees. Initially, most of the refugees were taken to the United States and Canada by June 1918. Significantly, it was the first time that American Jewish relief effort attempted to reach to the Far East. Until then, the refugees in the Far East were almost disconnected from the outside world. Using in part archival sources, I hope to shed new light on these inter-related topics.