Early Postwar Era: Repatriation of Japanese and International Politics

Abstract

Considering the situation in Europe after the end of World War II, the repatriation of the Holocaust survivors was not as straightforward as the Allied Powers had hoped. Many of them could not go back because their erstwhile communities had been destroyed, while others were afraid to go back for fear of persecution (pogroms). In October 1945, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) took over from the military forces the task of administering displaced persons in Europe. It transferred 250,000 Holocaust survivors, along with non-Jewish refugees, into “displaced persons (DP) camps” in what was to become West Germany, Austria, Italy, and elsewhere. While they were unable or unwilling to return to their countries of origin, many western countries put restrictions on immigration. For instance, a 1945 poll showed that 72 percent of Americans disapproved of President Harry Truman’s proposal to allow more refugees from Europe into the United States. Letters written by Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, which were discovered in 2005, revealed his failed attempts to emigrate to the United States in 1941. They also indicate the American sentiment and stance toward the victims of the Nazis in Europe at that time. Children today would not read Anne’s diary had the U.S. government issued a visa to the family.1KeywordsPrime MinisterForeign PolicyChinese Communist PartyJapanese GovernmentPeace TreatyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.