MIYAZAKI, JAPAN—The Asahi Shimbun reports that writer Akira Kitade has tracked down a visa issued by Saburo Nei, an acting Japanese consul-general in the Soviet Union, to Simon Korentajer, a Jewish refugee who fled to Vladivostock ahead of the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Korentajer’s granddaughter, Kim Hydorn, has kept the document, which was issued by Nei in Vladivostock in 1941. It allowed Korentajer, his wife, and their daughter to escape to Japan, violating the policy held by that country’s Foreign Ministry. This is the first visa issued by Nei to Jewish refugees to be recovered, although some records of them have been found. The number “21” was written on this document, indicating that Nei may have issued as many as 20 or more such visas. “I feel really happy that we have confirmed that Nei performed a humanitarian act by taking a risk,” said Yoku Nei of the Saburo Nei Honoring Association. The Korentajer family spent about six years in Shanghai before they emigrated to San Francisco in 1947. To read about a protracted World War II battle on the Western Pacific island of Peleliu, go to "Place of the Loyal Samurai."
