Nanako Murata SawayanagiAfter graduating from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo, Sawayanagi received a Ph.D. in history from New York University (NYU). Specializing in modern Greek history and the history and culture of the eastern Mediterranean, she now is a professor in the Faculty of Letters at Toyo University.Nanako Murata SawayanagiSome Greeks have orally passed down the story of the rescue of many Greek refugees by a Japanese ship during the Smyrna disaster of September 1922. Nanako Murata Sawayanagi, professor at Toyo University has researched the matter and has this to say.26 Some say that no good deed goes unrewarded, but what happens if no one recognizes that good deed? Almost one hundred years have passed since a Japanese ship is said to have rescued scores of Greek refugees in Asia Minor. Normally, such a deed would be widely applauded, but the scantiness of the records mean that the event has been lost in the mists of history. The stage for what happened lies in post-WWI Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey), an Aegean port city in western Asia Minor, with roots harking back to Ancient Greece. After the war, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned, with Greece and its allies rushing in to claim territory. Turkey eventually gained its independence in October 1923, but at the high cost of forcing various long-established non-Turkish ethnic groups to abandon their homeland. That brings us back to the event. On the night of September 13, 1922, five days after the Greek army had retreated, the Turks allegedly set fire to the residential district, which spread rapidly, forcing the inhabitants to swarm to the port to escape. Bertram Thesiger, a British-national captain of the George V at the time, recounts the scene as follows: “It was a terrifying thing to see even from the distance. There was the most awful scream one could ever imagine. ... Many did undoubtedly jump into the sea, from sheer panic. ... Mothers with their babies, the fire going on over their heads, and many of the bundles of clothes also on fire, and the people all screaming.”[1] CONTRIBUTED ARTICLEDid a Japanese Ship Rescue Hundreds of Greek Refugees from Smyrna a Century Ago?
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