Chiune Sugihara: Righteous Among the Nations

Chiune Sugihara

Not even counting the fact he was born on January 1st, 1900,  Chiune Sugihara was a pretty cool guy. Early in his career, Sugihara served as Deputy Foreign Minister in Manchuria, and during his time there converted to Christianity. He soon resigned from his position there in protest against the Japanese treatment of the Chinese there. In 1939, Sugihara was assigned to be the vice-consul of the Japanese Consulate in Lithuania. The Japanese did not entirely trust their German allies to fulfill all their promises, and so Sugihara was supposed to keep an eye on both them and the Russians, with whom Japan had been at war just a little while before. After Soviet Russia occupied Lithuania in 1940, the exiled Jews of Lithuania and Poland searched at all of the consulates for visas in order to travel safely from these war-torn areas filled with anti-Semitic militants. Initially, in order to help these refugees, Sugihara attempted to go through the proper channels and was denied multiple times by his superiors to issue visas for anyone except those with money or visas to a destination after their trip to Japan. In July or August of 1940, after consulting his family, Sugihara began to grant visas on his own, against his superior's will, which was a big no-no in imperial Japan. After speaking to Soviet officials, he secured the Jews the ability to travel through the country via the Trans-Siberian Railway at five times the standard ticket price. Sugihara continued writing these visas, reportedly spending 18 to 20 hours a day working on them, until September 4th when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed.  Of the thousands of visas he had granted, many were to heads of households, who were thus permitted to take their families with them on a single visa. On the night of their departure he and his wife continued writing these visas, and according to witnesses he continued writing visas on the transit from his hotel to the train and while on the train, throwing the visas out the windows to the crowds of refugees. As the time of his departure neared, he started throwing out blank pieces of paper with the consulate seal and his signature on them for people to write out their own visas later. Right before he left Sugihara stood and said “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best.” And as he bowed deeply to the refugees gathered before him, someone exclaimed, “Sugihara! We’ll never forget you. I’ll surely see you again!” Incredibly he never received any reprimand or notice from the Japanese government. Sugihara himself wondered about the reaction to the thousands of visas he issued. Many years later, he recalled, "No one ever said anything about it. I remember thinking that they probably didn't realize how many I actually issued." It is estimated that Sugihara issued 6,000 visas, many of which were family visas and accounted for multiple people. Because of his actions, an estimated 40,000 descendants of the Jews he saved are alive today, and Sugihara received the honorific of "Righteous Among the Nations" from Israel for his bravery in saving these Jews from the certain death and horrors of the holocaust, and I believe the title is well deserved.