Norihiro Yasue
| Norihito Yasue | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 12, 1886 Akita, Akita, Japan |
| Died | August 4, 1950 (aged 64) Khabarovsk, Soviet Union |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Service/branch |
 Imperial Japanese Army
|
| Years of service | 1906 - 1945 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles/wars |
Japanese intervention in Siberia World War II |
Norihiro Yasue (安江仙弘 Yasue Norihiro, January 12, 1886 – August 4, 1950) was an Imperial Japanese Army colonel who played a crucial role in the so-called Fugu Plan, in which Jews were rescued from Europe and brought to Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. He was known as one of Japan’s "Jewish experts", along with Captain Koreshige Inuzuka.
Yasue was born in Akita, where his father was a former samurai in the service of Matsumoto Domain, who later served the Meiji government in Taiwan. He graduated from the 21st class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, where his classmates included Kanji Ishihara and Kiichiro Higuchi in May 1905.
At the age of 33, Captain Yasue was assigned as part of the Japanese intervention in Siberia, to aid the Russian White Army in their struggle against the Bolshevik Red Army. A Russian-language specialist, he was assigned to the staff of General Gregorii Semenov, a vehement anti-Semite who distributed copies of the to all of his troops, along with weapons and rations. Along with a few dozen other Japanese soldiers, Yasue read and accepted the premises of the Protocols, and would allow this to guide much of his actions and views into the time of the beginning of World War II.
After his return to Japan in 1922, Yasue worked in the Army Intelligence Bureau, translating the into Japanese, while continuing to speak with Inuzuka and a handful of others about the Jewish problem in Russia. Their group grew quickly, publishing articles in internal army journals, and holding informal lectures and discussion groups. Following the publishing of his translation of the Protocols, Yasue attracted the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was sent in 1926 to Palestine to research the Jewish people. There, he traveled much of the country, and spoke to a variety of people, including noted Jewish leaders such as Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, farmers, shopkeepers, and rabbis. He became particularly interested in the emerging kibbutz movement, which he came to believe would be used by the Jews in their colonization of the world; his report to the Ministry, however, revealed that no one he spoke to mentioned anything about a conspiracy.
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