ABSTRACT
Ladies and gentlemen, and distinguished guests. Thank you for inviting me all the way from Jerusalem, the City of God, to Los Angeles, the City of Angels, to open this first Jewish and Japanese-American conference. For many years, while working on various aspects of Japanese history, I have been interested in the relations between the Jews and the Japanese, and in the cultural comparison between these two peoples. I am, therefore, delighted to witness today this link being forged, in this city where more people of Jewish and Japanese descent live together than in any other place in the world.
