By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
PIKESVILLE, Maryland – Kotsuji’s Gift: The Daring Rescue of Japan’s Jewish Refugees by Jundai Yamada, published in 2025, is a powerful and touching work that sheds light on a unique figure in World War II history. Yamada shares the story of Setsuzo Kotsuji, a Japanese scholar, university professor, and Japanese government official whose moral courage and compassion helped save thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi and Japanese persecution.
Setsuzō Kotsuji (1899-1973) was a Japanese Orientalist and Hebraist, the son of a Shinto priest from a long line of Shinto priests. During the Holocaust, at enormous risk to himself, he assisted Jewish refugees—first in Kobe and later in Japanese-occupied Shanghai—and spoke out against Nazi-inspired anti-Jewish propaganda. As a Japanese government official, he helped many Jews to escape the Holocaust. He was discovered, tortured for his actions, and forced to flee Japan.
His life was one of conviction and transformation. His decision to study Hebrew, embrace Christianity in his youth, and eventually convert to Judaism in Jerusalem in 1959 all mark him as a bridge between worlds. He was a man of courage who transcended national and religious boundaries in search of morality, truth, and justice.
The basic statement of morality is the command “love your neighbor as yourself” found in Leviticus 19:18. Leviticus 19:34 clarifies that the command includes non-Jews, stating, “love strangers as yourself.” It emphasizes the latter command by repeating it 36 times in the Hebrew Bible.
Hillel, who lived approximately from 110 BCE to 10 CE, rephrased the biblical command “love your neighbor as yourself” from a positive command to a negative one. Instead of focusing on what to do, it focuses on what to avoid. He told a man who was considering converting to Judaism, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. The rest is commentary.”
Jesus repeated the Torah teaching in the New Testament in Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:31. Matthew 7:12 restated it as, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”
There is also a saying in Bushido, the code of honor and morals developed by the Japanese samurai, “It is cowardice not to do, seeing one ought.”
Kotsuji, who died at the age of 74, rests in a grave in Jerusalem. He had left these words to his family: “Within a hundred years, someone will come along who will understand me.”
This book reveals his heroism without waiting a hundred years. It shows us that Kotsuji was a hero.
The author Jundai Yamada captures this great man’s journey with remarkable sensitivity. The book is fascinating and inspiring. It weaves the life of this extraordinary man with historical detail.
The book’s revelations are compelling, but what makes Kotsuji’s Gift unforgettable is its humanity. Yamada writes with clarity and heart, honoring Kotsuji not as a distant hero but as a complex, compassionate man whose responses to horrors and immorality still resonate today.
Roughly 4,600 refugees arrived in Kobe, Japan, between July 1940 and September 1941, primarily from Eastern Europe, escaping Nazi Germany, en route to other destinations such as Shanghai. These included about 300 teachers and students from Mir Yeshivah. Japan was at first kind to the Jews, but this changed in 1941, just before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and joined World War II. Japan gave Jews only a two-week “visa for life” to leave Japan. Not all could do so.
Kotsuji acted.
Imagine if you saved the life of a single individual. You would be proud of yourself for the rest of your life. Although no exact number can be attributed to Setsuzo Kotsuji’s efforts, it is estimated that he helped thousands of Jewish refugees.
Some years later, many guests crowded around beautifully set tables in Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz’s small apartment at the Mir Yeshivah in Jerusalem.
Rising to speak, Rabbi Shmulevitz, Mir’s illustrious head of the yeshivah, warmly called out, “Dear Reb Avraham, may you merit to grow in Torah and fear of Heaven, in line with the aspirations of your pure heart! May you become a true son of Avraham Avinu (Abraham our father), after whom you are now named.”
This was no bar-mitzvah celebration. The celebrant was Setsuzo Kotsuji, now 60 years old, who had recently been circumcised upon converting to Judaism, taking on the Hebrew name “Avraham.”
The rabbi continued, “We will never forget what you did for us when we were in Japan, nor how you risked your life to save us. The merit of that self-sacrifice is what stood in your stead and led you to seek shelter under the wings of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence) and to become a genuine member of the nation you helped so much.”
On another occasion, also in Israel, Kotsuji’s actions on behalf of Jewish refugees were remembered with appreciation. Former Deputy Speaker of Knesset and head of the Israel-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Group, Zvi Hauser, stated: “Kotsuji showed rare public courage in standing up against antisemitism in wartime Japan, and worked to aid the thousands of Jewish refugees who found themselves in Kobe. His legacy demonstrates how an individual, even without official authority, can make a decisive difference in the fate of others.”
At a time when the lessons of empathy and intercultural understanding feel more vital than ever, Kotsuji’s Gift stands as both a history and a moral guide. It reminds us that the choices of one individual—even in the darkest of times—can illuminate the path for generations to come.
This is a fascinating book for people who enjoy unusual and inspiring stories, readers of World War II history and Jewish studies, and all who seek hope and joy and want to read about inspirational people.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. He is the author of more than 50 books.
AloJapan.com