Chiune Sugihara was behave on January 1st , 1900 , and lived to make his mark on the twentieth hundred . Thousands of people owe their lives in part to his willingness to hitch authority . For his efforts , he was imprisoned by the Soviets and fired from his problem by the Japanese Foreign Ministry .
That ’s not the way Japanese children of his contemporaries were erect . Sugihara take the air to the beat of a unlike drummer even before the consequence that made him illustrious , when he went against his father ’s wishes and die amedical school entrance exam - on purpose . rather , he enrolled in a Tokyo university where he was recruited by the Japanese Foreign Ministry . Â Sugihara was assigned to Japanese - take Harbin , in Machuria , where he hone his English , learned Russian , and joined the Greek Orthodox Christian church . As his career was taking off , Sugihara ’s sense of justice led him to protest the way the Nipponese military treated Taiwanese citizen . Instead of getting disembarrass of the gifted diplomatist , the Foreign Ministry transfer him several times . He was eventually reassigned to Europe .
Sugihara electrify the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo to get approval for the programme , but he was denied several sentence . The consul in Tokyo say him to issueno change of location visa at all !
It is estimated that 6,000 Jews were able to leave Lithuania for the E because of the travel documents Sugihara make . The became known as theSugihara Survivors . The refugees traveled through the Soviet Union to Japan , where they stayed for month . Some traveled on to the United States , others to Shanghai , China , and some to the Caribbean island they had originally planned to get out to .
Sugihara died in 1986 . He was n’t well known in Japan until his funeral drew interest because of the many foreigner visitor who come to pay protection , let in the Israeli embassador to Japan . When his countryman learned of his gallantry , amemorial parkwas built in Yaotsu - cho , Sugihara ’s birthplace . TheSugihara Memorial Gardenstands at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill , Massachusetts . Astatue of Sugiharawas erected in 2002 in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles . The memorial prove in a flick by Alma Pater is inVilnius , Lithuania . In the twenty-first century , some estimate that the original visa holders have 80,000 descendant . That is the greatest memorial of all .
See also : The Legacy of Sadako
