The Japanese PM Shinzo Abe Will Visit Anne Frank’s House

When the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to Amsterdam next week, he will not only be discussing nuclear security, the crisis in Ukraine and the world economy.

He will also be paying a visit to the house where Jewish heroine Anne Frank wrote her diaries while hiding from the Nazis during World War II. The visit has been scheduled after more than 300 copies of her diary and other books related to her were vandalized in Tokyo libraries and bookstores earlier this year.

Tokyo police have arrested and charged an unemployed man from the nation’s capital for the vandalism, which some believe was inspired by ultra right-wing ideology.

According to a foreign ministry official the Wall Street Journal has interviewed, the purpose of the visit by the Japanese Prime Minister is to convey the message that many Japanese were hurt by the vandalism, which gained international attention and condemnation.

Abe will be the first Japanese leader to visit the Anne Frank House.

[Wall Street Journal]