Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania in 1939. His duties were to report on German and Soviet troop movements as well as to find out if Germany planned on attacking the Soviets and, if so, to report them to his Superiors in Tokyo and Berlin. Sugihara also cooperated with Polish intelligence as part of plan to help get Polish and Lithuanian Jews out of the country using exit visas. At this time, in 1940, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union and it was very dangerous to travel without an exit visa. Hundreds of people came to the Japanese consulate, where Sugihara worked, seeking a visa to Japan however the Japanese government required that visas only be issued to those who had enough funds and who had gone through the proper immigration procedures. Sadly, most of the people who applied for the visa didn’t fulfill these requirements.

 From the 18th of July to the 28th of August 1940, Sugihara decided himself to grant people visas on his own because of how much danger the applicants would be in. He ignored all the requirements and issued the Jews with a ten day pass visa to travel through Japan, in violation of his orders. He also spoke with Soviet officials who agreed to allow Jews to travel across the country via the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Reportedly, Sugihara would spend 18-20 hours a day hand writing the visas necessary to allow people to travel. He worked so hard that he’d produce a normal months worth of visas in a single day. He continued writing up visas until September 4th before his consulate was about to close. By that time he had already handed out thousands of visas, many of whom to the head of a household who were permitted to take their families along with them. According to several witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel to the train station, throwing the visas from the window of the train into a nearby crowd of desperate refugees,

In one last desperate act before the train left, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature, which could later be made into travel visas, were thrown from his train window into the crowd. As the train departed, he said, “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best.” When he bowed deeply to the people before him, someone exclaimed, “Sugihara. We’ll never forget you. I’ll surely see you again!”