More Than 6,000 Jews Saved by a Japanese Diplomat

What I am going to write now is my knowledge, albeit limited to the books I read, of the Japanese man who saved more that 6,000 Jewish people while working at the Consulate-General in Lithuania in 1940.

Mr Chiune Sugihara was sent to Harbin, the Manchurian Empire as a student (I think he was almost like "an intern".) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Imperial Japan in 1919. It was when he was first exposed to the Jewish culture and the Jewish question (posed by the Nazi Germany) in the Manchurian Empire where a lot of Jews sought safety after the end of WWI. And in 1933, he was assigned to the post at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Manchurian Empire.

Therefore, he already had knowledge and experience enough to identify all the issues related to discrimination against the Jewish people practiced by the Nazi Germany by the time when he was assigned to the post of Charge d'Affairs at the Consulate-General in Lithuania. He knew why his Consulate-General was all surrounded by thousands of the Jewish people as refugees in Lithuania fleeing from Poland in 1940.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Empire of Japan already decided to close his Consulate-General because of the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union on July 21, 1940. Knowing that his time was running out because he received an order to close his Consulate-General by August 25, 1940, he tried to figure out how to save those Jewish people coming to  his Consulate-General for help. He finally decided to issue transit visas to them, by which they could reach Japan via the Soviet Union, from where they could travel to other safe countries, thereby helping them escape from Lithuania.

However, the U.S. Embassy in Lithuania was extremely cautious and negative about issuing visas to them because of its immigration law and the British Embassy there also refused to issue visas to them because of its issue related to Palestine.

His achievement was so remarkable. He knew that he did not have to have any approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if it was just issuance of transit visa. Just think of how much he had to work within the time given to him. He had only 30 days or so left to complete the issuance of visas to more than 6,000 Jews in addition to the work related to the closure of his Consulate-General. He was all alone at the Consulate-General and had to hand write more than 6,000 visas in Japanese all by himself.

I often encounter some articles related to the rescue of the Jewish people by the Japanese diplomat, in which they tend to regard his act as something similar to the help extended by Mr. Oskar Schindler. As everyone knows, he was a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust as seen in the famous movie named "Schindler's list".

However, I believe we have so far failed to observe and to focus on  two major differences between a case of Mr. Oskar Shindler and a case of Mr. Chiune Sugihara as below.

1. Mr Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat while Mr. Oscar Schindler was a German businessman.
This difference shows that Japan was not the country China and Korea, etc. have been propagating in an effort to establish the grounds on which the Imperial Japan had committed the same atrocities as the Nazi Germany had against the Jewish people.
None can deny the historical fact that Japan became one party to the Axis under the Tripartite Pact signed in September, 1940. However, it is believed that Japan was tricked into the Axis by Adolf Hitler and others (which should be discussed in the future whenver possible.).
2. Mr. Oskar Schindler has became so famous and has been known to everyone in the world but the world has so far failed to fully recognize Mr. Chinue Sughihara's work of rescuing more than 6,000 Jewish people under the difficult conditions. I mean he should deserve recognition at least as much as Mr. Oscar Schindler was recognized.        

Read related story by the Japan Times  http://bit.ly/eChghI