Two-hundred and sixty-five copies of the “Diary of a Young Girl,” written by Anne Frank during her hideaway Holocaust years, have been vandalized in Tokyo libraries in the last few weeks.
Mostly, pages have been ripped from the books at 31 different libraries, The Associated Press reported. The motive for the crimes is not yet known, but Japan and Nazi Germany were allies during World War II.
“Books related to Ms. Anne Frank are clearly targeted, and it’s happening across Toyko,” said one city official, Mitsujiro Ikeda, in the AP report. “It’s outrageous.”
Ms. Frank penned her dramatic, real-time account of hiding with her family in a small apartment over the span of two years. After her family was discovered and deported, she was sent to a German concentration camp — where she ultimately died at the age of 15 in 1945. Her father, who survived, had her diary published.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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