Wiesenthal Center Urges Japanese Retailer to Remove “Nazi” Uniform Costume from Stores

December 6, 2010

*UPDATE-READ RELATED AP STORY IN "THE WASHINGTON POST"

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called on the Japanese discount retail chain, Don Quixote, to remove a “Nazi” uniform adult costume, replete with swastikas, from its approximately 127 stores throughout Japan and Hawaii.

In a letter to Mr. Takao Yasuda, Chairman of Don Quixote’s board and Mr. Junji Narusawa, the corporation’s President, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center told of the shock expressed by one the Center’s members at seeing the costume being sold at the chain’s location in Tokyo’s Ginza section. “Nazi Germany carried out a genocidal campaign against the Jewish people during World War II. Six million innocent Jews and millions of other innocents were murdered by the Nazis, including 1.5 million children,” Cooper wrote, adding that, “…the swastika is still deployed as a symbol of hatred against all “non-Aryans” including Asians.”

In urging Don Quixote’s officials to remove the costumes, Rabbi Cooper reminded them of their corporate guidelines that say, in part, that as a “corporate citizen” that, “we believe taking social responsibility is true compliance… We do not accept any unreasonable requests from antisocial sources.”

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.


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, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).