Suwa Nejiko (諏訪根自子) (23 January 1920 – 6 March 2012)[1] was a Japanese violinist who earned fame as a child prodigy during the inter-war period.

Although her career was mostly confined to Japan and Europe, she posthumously became the source of controversy in the United States concerning the gift of what was claimed to be a Stradivarius violin by Joseph Goebbels, which possibly had been confiscated from its previous Jewish owner.

After receiving interest in Suwa's playing from the Belgian Ambassador to Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided in 1936 to sponsor her study abroad in Belgium with Boris Kamensky, to whom she had previously been introduced by her compatriot Hara Chieko [ja].

In 1942, Kamensky petitioned the Japanese Embassy in France to care for Suwa, as he feared for the personal consequences he and his family could endure from the imminent Nazi occupation of Paris.

At the time, Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan were co-signatories of the Tripartite Pact; this permitted Suwa to continue working in Europe, including playing for wounded German soldiers.

In recognition of her services to German troops and her "superb technique and a brilliant display of art"[2] on the instrument, Joseph Goebbels presented her with a violin on 22 February 1943.

They were briefly sent to Pennsylvania in August to be detained in the Bedford Springs Hotel in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains before being released in November and sent back to Japan.

[2] After the war, she performed at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl as the "first Japanese musical star to set foot on American soil since the signing of the peace treaty".