11/9/2001
Simon Wiesenthal
Soka Gakkai, Yokohama
"Am My Brother's Keeper: The Life and Times of Simon Wiesenthal". The exhibition consists of photographs, documents, written reflections and memorabilia of Simon Wiesenthal, 92, the Jewish architect who survived the Nazi Holocaust to devote his life to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. He has lived through epeated threats on his life, including a letter bombing in 1982, yet remains committed to numerous human rights causes, including the support of dissidents regardless of their nationality or creed.
"I Am My Brother's Keeper: The Life and Times of Simon Wiesenthal"
The exhibit, developed by the
Simon Wiesenthal Centre -- the acclaimed Jewish human rights organisation
based in Los Angeles, USA -- and sponsored in Japan by the Soka Gakkai, will
be shown outside the United States for the first time ever.
The exhibition consists of photographs, documents, written reflections and
memorabilia of Simon Wiesenthal, 92, the Jewish architect who survived the
Nazi Holocaust to devote his life to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.
He has lived through repeated threats on his life, including a letter bombing
in 1982, yet remains committed to numerous human rights causes, including the
support of dissidents regardless of their nationality or creed. Mr.
Wiesenthal's work has been cited for fostering international condemnation of
all war crimes in general, serving as impetus to found a United Nations agency
to hunt and arrest war criminals.
''We wanted to show Japanese viewers how a single person, despite daunting
adversity, actually bettered the world,'' said Masanori Otaka, director of the
Office of Activities for Peace and Culture at the Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist
organisation. ''We also felt that it was an opportune time, given the recent
controversies over the Prime Minister's visit to Yasukuni shrine and the
glossed-over history textbook, for people in Japan to pay serious thought to
the atrocities committed in Asia by the Japanese imperial military during the
war.''
The exhibit is the second collaborative effort between the Simon Wiesenthal
Centre and Soka Gakkai. The first took place in 1994, when the two groups
launched the Japan exhibition of ''The Courage to Remember: Anne Frank and the
Holocaust,'' an ongoing program that has travelled to 51 cities and attracted
some 1.7 million visitors. A third exhibit, sponsored by Soka Gakkai
affiliate Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, is slated to open in Japan next year.
A special media viewing will be held for the ''I Am My Brother's Keeper''
exhibit on its opening day, followed by a press conference held by Simon
Wiesenthal Centre Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper. The program will run
in Yokohama until January 14, 2002, then travel to a number of Japanese
cities.
Contact:
Rie Tsumura, Director
Soka Gakkai International Office of Public Information
Tel: +81-3-5360-9831
Fax: +81-3-5360-9880
Email: pr-rie@sgi.gr.jp
Soka Gakkai Toda Peace Memorial Hall in the Kanagawa prefecture city