Tokyo – A Japanese discount chain said Tuesday it will pull a Nazi costume from its shelves after receiving a complaint from an American Jewish organization.
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The costume on sale at retailer Don Quijote Co. includes a black jacket with a red swastika armband in a package adorned with a sketch resembling Adolf Hitler and the phrase “Heil Hitler” in Japanese characters.
The outfit was on sale for about 5,000 yen ($60) in at least two Don Quijote outlets in Tokyo, including one in the upscale Ginza shopping district.
Aico, a Japanese party goods maker, has made the costume for seven years and never had a complaint, said spokesman Nobuyoshi Nasuzawa.
“This was meant purely as a joke, as something that would easily be recognizable. If we have complaints we will certainly stop sales,” he said. It was not clear if Aico would now stop making the costume.
Don Quijote said it would pull the product after receiving a letter from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish rights organization based in Los Angeles. The letter, dated Monday, requested that sales at the store cease immediately, saying the swastika is a “symbol of hatred” and reminding the retailer that millions of Jews and other innocents were killed by the Nazis during World War II.
“We want to fully respond to this letter from the center and are currently working within the company to do so,” said company spokeswoman Kana Kasai in Tokyo.
Kasai said she didn’t immediately know how long the product had been on sale or how many had been sold.
In one store, the Nazi costume was on display alongside dozens of others, including one that resembled pop star Michael Jackson, as well as nurse and ninja outfits.
An online search showed the costume was also available through small retailers hosted on shopping sites such as Amazon Japan, the U.S. company’s local unit. An Amazon spokesman in Tokyo was not immediately available for comment.
Unfortunately, the Japanese just don’t get it. According to their history textbooks (which are in their public and private schools), they were Snow White during WW2, and they were the victim of aggression. Today, incidentally, is the 69th anniversary, of their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, and nearby military installations.
Kol Hakavod to the Simon Wiesenthal Center for fighting nazism all over the globe.
Its certainly a disgrace and the manufacturer should be shut down. Let’s not forget about the many who were saved there along with Mirrer yeshiva.
The ironic thing is that while selling, buying and using Nazi memorabilia is perfectly legal in the United States, it considered to be one of the most serious of crimes in post-war Germany.
To #5 - Your facts are wrong. Initially, the Japanese let the Mirer Yeshivah relocate to Kobe, Japan in 1941, where they were saved from the Nazis. Later in the war, the Japanese relocated the Yeshivah faculty and students to Shanghai, China, which was under their control. Also, the Japanese Consul in Vilna, Lithuania, Chuine Sugihara, issued thousands of visas to Jews, which permitted them to relocate to Shanghai. The Japanese never persecuted the Jews in Shanghai, although living in Shanghai at that time, was not easy.
Who are American Jews to tell a Japanese company what they can and cannot sell???? This is why people hate you! Don’t forget, not everyone buys the whole “Jew’s suffered” in WWII story. For some of us, the Nazis were heroes.