Review Essay: Zealous Antisemitism Without Jews: Fanaticism in Search of an Object

Goodman and Miyazawa have written a comprehensive history of Japanese concepts of Jews. They describe the eventual fusion of Japan’s prolific perspectives about Jews: each strand became absorbed by the black hole of a rabid antisemitism. After presenting highlights of the book, this essay points to its shortcomings in delineating topics primary to comprehend Japanese antisemitism: the catastrophic experiences of early Japanese childhood that shape and are shaped by the nefarious aspects of Japanese national character which in turn give rise to vehement prejudice. In plumbing the dark side of the Japanese, the usefulness of these constructs from psychoanalysis and psychohistory—including the concepts of groups fantasy and the enduring psychological impact of community catastrophes—is demonstrated. In a striking first chapter, the authors deposit the reader into the middle of a Japanese theater of the absurd. Here in a culturally advanced society that is