Kotsuji’s Gift

Kotsuji’s Gift is the extraordinary story of a Japanese scholar’s destiny to search for the true meaning of faith against the backdrop of saving thousands of lives during World War II, and a young Japanese actor’s quest to uncover his deeds nearly a century later. Born into a family of Shinto priests in Kyoto, Kotsuji chose a different path, becoming a Christian minister, and emerged as his nation’s only expert in classic Hebrew, a vital interlocutor to Judaism during the Jewish people’s darkest hour. Kotsuji’s daring actions, at great personal risk to himself, extended the valid period of the “visas for life,” originally issued for only two weeks of transit. For this he was tortured and forced to flee Japan, becoming a refugee himself in China. He ultimately converted to Judaism in Jerusalem in 1959. Beginning with Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik’s riveting foreword, Yamada shows in Kotsuji’s Gift how one person’s courage intersected with fate and changed the destiny of so many lives.