Chiune Sugihara: Japanese Diplomat

Defying Orders to Save Lives

With the Second World War devastating Europe, many of these Lithuanian Jews sought passage further afield, with destinations like the United States and British-Palestine in mind. A Dutch diplomat to Lithuania, Jan Zwartendijk, had been given orders by his superiors to issue visas to Jews seeking passage to Curaçao, a Dutch colony in the Caribbean. With Western Europe and the Mediterranean being cut off to Jews, reaching all the aforementioned destinations required an eastern route across the Soviet Union via the Trans-Siberian Railway, followed by passage through the Japanese mainland and its occupied territory in China.

Early Life/Career

Chiune Sugihara was born in 1900 into a relatively wealthy samurai-descended family in central Japan to Yoshimi Sugihara, a tax worker, and Yatsu Sugihara, who raised him and his five siblings. From an early age, Sugihara had an interest in Western cultures. During his time at Waseda University in 1918, he joined Yuai Gakusha, a Christian fraternity, not for religious zeal, but his desire to learn English. These studies continued further during his tenure serving the Foreign Ministry in Manchuria in the early 1920s, where he learned Russian and German and became familiar with European culture, which later played a crucial role in his diplomatic career. 

Perhaps more pertinent was the broader Japanese-Jewish context of his youth. In 1904, in the prelude to the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese Empire was able to procure funding for its military efforts primarily due to one man, Jewish-American Jacob Schiff. Schiff was a New York banker who lent the Japanese government some 200 million dollars, which was crucial in their victory over the Russians. Consequently, Schiff was lauded as a war hero by the Japanese, and became the first foreigner to receive the Order of the Rising Sun by Emperor Meiji in 1905. This high-profile Jewish encounter might have colored Sugihara’s views on Jews into adulthood. 

Indeed, Schiff’s financial aid during the Russo-Japanese War was one of the precursors to the Fugu, or “Puffer Fish Plan," proposed by Japanese leadership in the 1930s. By that time, the Russian antisemitic pamphlet, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, had circulated throughout the Japanese Empire. However, rather than incite antisemitism among the Japanese population, the pamphlet had the opposite effect, exaggerating Jewish political and economic influence in the minds of the Japanese high command. It was believed that should Japan curry favor with Jewish populations, specifically American Jews, in hopes it could help facilitate friendlier relations with the United States government. To this end, in 1939, the Japanese high command issued memoranda, entitled “Concrete Measures to be Employed to Turn Friendly to Japan the Public Opinion Far East Diplomatic Policy Close Circle of President of USA by Manipulating Influential Jews in China" and "The Study and Analysis of Introducing Jewish Capital,” respectively. These memoranda called for the settlement of Jewish populations within the Japanese empire, including a guarantee of political and religious freedoms. This effort was directed primarily towards American Jews, but crucially, Russian Jews fleeing both Nazi and Soviet antisemitism were permitted into Japanese-occupied China, including the Manchukuo province and Shanghai (incidentally, the effort was called the “Puffer Fish Plan” because, like preparing toxic puffer fish for consumption, Japan felt they had to handle the Jewish presence delicately, lest they “poison” the nation). This positive, albeit misinformed, image of Jews served as causal context for Sugihara’s actions.

Sugihara joined the Japanese Foreign Ministry in 1924 and was stationed in Harbin, Manchuria (Northeast China). He became an expert in Soviet affairs and negotiated Japan’s acquisition of the North Manchurian Railway from the Soviet Union. However, he resigned in protest over Japan’s harsh treatment of the local Chinese population. After leaving Manchuria, Sugihara was assigned to various diplomatic posts, including Helsinki, Stockholm, and eventually Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1939, where he was appointed Vice-Consul of the Japanese Consulate. His primary duty was to report on Soviet and German military movements.

Actions During World War II

For many Lithuanian Jews, procuring the necessary visas to pass through Japan proved a challenge.  Applicants needed to traverse a sea of paperwork and bureaucratic proceedings, as well as acquire an adequate amount of funds. Given the complexities in gaining passage eastward, many Jewish refugees personally appealed to Sugihara to expedite their visas. In July 1940, hundreds of Polish and Lithuanian Jews gathered outside the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, begging Sugihara for transit visas. Sugihara contacted the Japanese Foreign Ministry for permission but was denied three times. Despite this, he decided to act on his own conscience. Sugihara asked his superiors in the Japanese foreign ministry for further clarification, but none came. 

With no further guidance, Sugihara unilaterally decided to issue as many visas as possible as quickly as possible, forgoing the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s requirements. From July 18 to August 28, 1940, Sugihara and his wife, Yukiko worked frantically to produce as many ten-day visas as possible, sometimes writing visas for 18-20 hours a day, producing a month’s worth in mere hours. They handwrote over 2,000 visas, each covering entire families. These visas would allow Jewish refugees to successfully navigate Japan’s ports and cities on their way to the United States and beyond. Some reports hold that in order to help Jewish families procure a seat on the Trans-Siberian Railway, he bribed the conductors and bought tickets for five times the price. It’s reported that after being reassigned from his post in Lithuania, Sugihara continued to distribute hand-written visas on his way to the departing train. As the train left, he eventually stopped writing document details and flung pieces of paper with his signature and consulate seal out the window, with the particulars to be filled in by those who caught them. One of the last statements Sugihara reportedly made upon his departure was: "Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best." These visas, often referred to as the “Visas for Life” allowed thousands of Jewish refugees to travel through the Soviet Union to Japan and then to Shanghai or other safe destinations.

Estimates vary on how many Jews Sugihara was directly responsible for saving. Some figures put the efforts at closer to 2,000, while higher estimates are closer to 6,000, with the latter being the recognized number by the Japanese Times, Sugihara’s wife and others. Those who argue higher numbers theorize that given each visa was written for heads of household, there should be a multiplier attached to the lives saved, as each life would have represented a corresponding family. Documentation from the time, including the records in Kobe, Japan, where many Jewish refugees passed through or settled, support the 2000 number. 

Sugihara was reassigned to Prague, Czechoslovakia, and later Romania during the war. In 1945, as Soviet forces occupied Romania, he was arrested by the Soviets and spent eighteen months in a POW camp before being released in 1947. When he returned to Japan the Foreign Ministry forced him to resign, officially citing post-war downsizing but likely due to his unauthorized visa actions. He lived in obscurity, working menial jobs including as a translator and businessman in Moscow.

For years, Sugihara’s story remained unknown. In 1968, a Jewish survivor whom he had saved, found him and helped bring his actions to light. He was invited to Israel, where Yad Vashem recognized him as “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1985, the only Japanese national to receive this honor.

Sugihara passed away on July 31, 1986, in Japan. Though largely ignored by his government during his lifetime, he was posthumously honored by Japan and is now celebrated as a hero.