That Other Holocaust Hero Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara

During that horrific sideshow of WWII, the Holocaust, when six million Jews were murdered, there were people who went out of their way, often at great risk to themselves, to save Jews from the Nazi insanity. The most well-known of these heroes was Oskar Schindler, made famous by the 1993 Steven Spielberg film starring Liam Neeson, Schindler’s List.  Schindler, a Nazi Party member, employed Jews in his armaments factory. He could have made a fortune but instead used his profits to bribe the Nazis into letting him keep his Jewish workers safe in his care. Schindler went broke saving the lives of 1200 Jews. Impressive as this was, it pales compared to the accomplishment of that lesser-known humanitarian hero, Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara.

Born in 1900, Sugihara entered the Japanese foreign service where he learned Russian, converted to the Russian orthodox religion, and while stationed in the Japanese run Manchurian part of China known as Manchuko, married a Russian woman. Outraged by Japan’s mistreatment of Chinese, he quit his post in 1934 and divorced his wife. The following year he married a Japanese woman with whom he had four sons.

In 1939, concerned about the threatened war between the USSR and Nazi Germany, Japan appointed Sugihara to the post of Vice Consul in Lithuania, his job being to report on troop movements. He kept his post during WWII. In 1940 there was a development not foreseen by him-Jews, desperate to escape annihilation by the Nazis, seeking visas to leave Lithuania. At risk to his personal status as a diplomat, Sugihara ignored Japanese orders to strictly limit the number of Jews given these visas, and instead signed thousands, allowing Jews safe passage to Japan and places under Japanese jurisdiction along with countries whom Japan had relationships with. (Many found refuge in Japanese controlled Shanghai, China.) It is estimated that his efforts saved six thousand Jews from almost certain death. After the war he worked at assorted jobs outside government. In 1985, the year before his death, Israel honored Chiune Sugihara as being member of The Righteous Among the Nations.

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