39 Facts About Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Chiune Sugihara is the only Japanese national to have been so honored.

Chiune Sugihara was born on 1 January 1900, in Mino, Gifu prefecture, to a middle-class father, Yoshimi Sugihara, and an upper-middle class mother, Yatsu Sugihara.

Chiune Sugihara was the second son among five boys and one girl.

In 1906 on 2 April, Chiune Sugihara entered Nakatsu Town Municipal Elementary School.

Chiune Sugihara's father wanted him to become a physician, but Chiune deliberately failed the entrance exam by writing only his name on the exam papers.

From 1920 to 1922, Chiune Sugihara served in the Imperial Army as a second lieutenant with the 79th Infantry, stationed in Korea, then part of the Empire of Japan.

Chiune Sugihara resigned his commission in November 1922 and took the Foreign Ministry's language qualifying exams the following year, passing the Russian exam with distinction.

Kyosenji Temple where Chiuna Sugihara was born and village section Named "Chiune" which can be seen from the temple.

When Chiune Sugihara served in the Manchurian Foreign Office, he took part in the negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning the Northern Manchurian Railroad.

In 1934, Chiune Sugihara quit his post as Deputy Foreign Minister in Manchuria in protest over Japanese mistreatment of the local Chinese.

Chiune Sugihara served in the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as a translator for the Japanese delegation in Helsinki, Finland.

In 1939, Chiune Sugihara became a vice-consul of the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Chiune Sugihara's duties included reporting on Soviet and German troop movements, and to find out if Germany planned an attack on the Soviets and, if so, to report the details of this attack to his superiors in Berlin and Tokyo.

In Lithuania, Sugihara started using the Sino-Japanese reading "Sempo" for his given name, since it was easier to pronounce than "Chiune".

Chiune Sugihara dutifully contacted the Japanese Foreign Ministry three times for instructions.

Chiune Sugihara spoke to Soviet officials who agreed to let the Jews travel through the country via the Trans-Siberian Railway at five times the standard ticket price.

Chiune Sugihara himself wondered about official reaction to the thousands of visas he issued.

In 1985, when Chiune Sugihara received the Righteous among the Nations award, some Japanese newspapers reported that he saved 6,000 people and others 4,500.

The Japan Times, dated January 19,1985, had the headline "Japanese Man honored for saving 6,000 Jews", and reported "Chiune Sugihara defied orders from Tokyo and issued transit visas to nearly 6,000 Jews".

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has estimated that Chiune Sugihara issued transit visas for about 6,000 Jews and that around 40,000 descendants of the Jewish refugees are alive today because of his actions.

Indeed, some Jews who received Chiune Sugihara's visas failed to leave Lithuania in time, were later captured by the Germans who invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and perished in the Holocaust.

The remaining number of Chiune Sugihara survivors stayed in Japan until they were deported to Japanese-held Shanghai, where there was already a large Jewish community that had existed as early as the mid-1930s.

Chiune Sugihara was reassigned to Konigsberg, East Prussia before serving as a Consul General in Prague, in the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, from March 1941 to late 1942 and in the legation in Bucharest, Romania from 1942 to 1944.

Chiune Sugihara was promoted to the rank of third secretary in 1943, and was decorated with the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 5th Class, in 1944.

Some sources, including his wife Yukiko Chiune Sugihara, have said that the Foreign Ministry told Chiune Sugihara he was dismissed because of "that incident" in Lithuania.

Chiune Sugihara settled in Fujisawa in Kanagawa prefecture with his wife and three sons.

Chiune Sugihara suffered a personal tragedy in 1947 when his youngest son, Haruki, died at the age of seven, shortly after their return to Japan.

In 1949 they had one more son, Nobuki, who is the last son alive representing the Chiune Sugihara Family, residing in Belgium.

Chiune Sugihara later began to work for an export company as general manager of a US Military Post Exchange.

The next year Chiune Sugihara visited Israel and was greeted by the Israeli government.

Chiune Sugihara beneficiaries began to lobby for his recognition by Yad Vashem.

Chiune Sugihara was too ill to travel to Israel, so his wife and youngest son Nobuki accepted the honor on his behalf.

Chiune Sugihara explained that the refugees were human beings, and that they simply needed help.

Chiune Sugihara died at a hospital in Kamakura, on 31 July 1986.

Chiune Sugihara's death spotlighted his humanitarian acts during WW2 and created the opportunity to revise his reputation as a diplomat in his own country.

The life-size bronze statue depicts Chiune Sugihara seated on a bench and holding a hand-written visa.

Chiune Sugihara was posthumously awarded the Sakura Award by the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto in November 2014.

The Lithuanian government declared 2020 "The Year of Chiune Sugihara", promising to erect a monument to him and issue postage stamps in his honor.