Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Diplomat Who Defied Orders to Help Thousands of People to Escape

What would you do if families were stood outside your office knowing that your signature could mean the difference between their escape and almost certain persecution?

Today I want to find out a bit about Chiune Sugihara. He was a Japanese diplomat who risked his career during the Second World War by issuing transit visas that helped thousands of Jewish refugees escape from Europe.

Chiune was born on the 1st of January 1900 in Gifu Prefecture in Japan. He studied at Waseda University before joining the Japanese Foreign Ministry, where his ability to speak Russian helped him develop a career as a specialist in Eastern European affairs.

By 1939, Chiune was serving as vice-consul at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania.

The following year, the situation became increasingly desperate. Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, while Jewish refugees who had already fled persecution in Poland and elsewhere found themselves searching for another way to escape.

Hundreds of people began gathering outside the Japanese consulate hoping to obtain transit visas allowing them to travel across the Soviet Union, through Japan and eventually further.

There was a problem.

Japanese regulations required travellers to meet strict conditions before a transit visa could be issued. Many of the refugees standing outside Chiune's consulate simply could not meet them.

Chiune repeatedly contacted his superiors asking for permission to help. His requests were refused.

He then made an extraordinary decision.

Beginning in July 1940, Chiune started issuing visas anyway.

For weeks, he reportedly worked for hours each day writing and signing documents as quickly as he could. His wife, Yukiko, supported his decision despite understanding the possible consequences for their family.

The exact number of people ultimately saved through Chiune's actions remains debated. More than 2,000 visas were issued directly by him, but because some covered entire families, thousands of people were able to use them in their attempts to escape. Estimates of those helped vary considerably.

Many travelled across the Soviet Union on the Trans-Siberian Railway before reaching Vladivostok and continuing by ship towards Japan.

Eventually, Chiune was ordered to leave Lithuania as the consulate closed. Accounts from witnesses later claimed that he continued preparing visas almost until the time of his departure.

After the war, Chiune returned to Japan. In 1947, he left the Foreign Ministry and spent much of his later life living quietly, with relatively few people in Japan knowing what he had done.

Decades later, some of the people who had escaped using his visas began searching for the diplomat who had helped them.

In 1984, Yad Vashem recognised Chiune Sugihara as Righteous Among the Nations for his actions during the Holocaust.

He died on the 31st of July 1986, at the age of eighty-six.

Chiune Sugihara had been faced with a choice between following instructions and helping frightened people standing directly in front of him.

He chose to help.

Could you have risked your career and your family's future to make the same decision?