Japanese Conspiracy Book's Cover Depicting Jews, Israel, & North Korea As Responsible For Launching 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Denounced by SWC

The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced a newly published book in Japan whose cover depicts the 9/11 terrorist attacks as being launched by Jews, Israel and North Korea. The cover depicts a religious Jew wearing a yarmulke, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at his side, remotely controlling a plane as it crashes into the World Trade Center. On the office wall is a portrait of Hitler and on the table are books entitled Talmud, Project New World Order and Greater Israel.

The book, Sekai no Yami wo Kataru: Oya to Ko no Kaiwa-shu, (translated as “Talking About the Darkness of the World: An Anthology of Father-and-Child Conversations”), is written by “Internet journalist” Richard Koshimizu whose website contains a wide range of conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination, the War on Terror and the Bush Administration. Koshimizu is also planning a seminar next month at a venue operated by The Consortium of Universities in Kyoto.

“It has been many years since we have seen a book that contains so much hatred, racism and falsehoods following the ‘Big Lie’ tradition of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Center. “Further, this is a time when there is justifiably great anger and fear of the North Korean leader in Japan. Placing him on the cover next to a religious Jew perpetrating the 9/11 atrocity is the worst form of pornographic hate,” Cooper continued.

Rabbi Cooper will be in Tokyo next week to speak at a seminar on behalf of Tokuma Books and will touch on the impact of conspiracy theories and negative stereotypes against Jews. Cooper will also brief the media at the Japan Press Club.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.