Japanese Government in War and Chiune Sugihara for Visas for Lives

For those who do not know "Chiune "Sempo" Sugihara", Sugihara was the Vice-consul in Japanese Consulate in Lithuania during World War II in 1940s. He issued tens of thousands of visas helping Jewish refugees to exit Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. It is thought that the number of refugees whom he saved would be between 6,000 and 10,000. It is why he is called the "Japanese Schindler". Before he started issuing visas for refugees, he requested approval to issue visas for refugees to the Imperial Japanese Government. According to an official record, he requested approval three times. All of the requests were rejected.

He decided to ignore the Japanese Government's regulations and issued visas to refugees who would not normally qualify. This was obviously violating Japanese law. The Japanese Government were in alliance with the anti-Semitic Germany. His conduct could endanger the alliance between Germany and Japan. He had issued visas against Japan law for what he believed to be right. It was a brave humanitarian action. However, the big question is why the Japanese government did nothing to stop his illegal activity.

 Unfortunately, due to the chaos of the war, there is no official record left. We cannot know exactly what was the Japanese Government reaction to Sugihara's action. However, there are two prominent facts, which interest us today. 1) Japanese Government could stop Sugihara if they had wanted, but they did not. 2) Japanese Government did not reject admission of Jewish people who exited from Lithuania, despite that they could do.

Instead, when refugees' entry to Japan was about to be rejected, the Government of Japan in coordination with Jewish community in Kobe allowed the refugees to enter into Japan. Many of them moved to Shanghai and the US. A not so small number of people stayed in Japan. There might have been a strong supporter of Sugiura in the Japanese government to help him. It is true that the Government of Japan supported Sugihara's action in helping those refugees by not rejecting the applications of refugees. Who were those people who supported Sugihara's activities? How many were they? What were their names? Though our imagination can go on and on, we are unable to know who they were now. They are all gone from history due to confusion in the lost war.

Sugihara continued to serve the Foreign Ministry of Japan as a diplomat in various European countries such as Czechoslovakia and Bucharest after he left Lithuania. After the end of the war, after being held as a POW camp for 18 months in Romania, he returned to Japan in 1946. He resigned from the Foreign Ministry in 1947. Many believe that he was asked to resign from Foreign Ministry due to his conduct in Lithuania. The official government record only shows that Sugihara resigned. After his resignation, Sugihara worked for a trading firm using his language skills. He was stationed in Moscow as the general representative of the trading company in the 1960s. Israel, Poland, and the Japanese governments gave him an honor for his humanitarian activity giving him honorable medals. Israel offered him, his family, and his descendants an honor of perpetual Israeli citizenship. Sugihara died on July 31, 1986 from a stroke. He was 86 years old. Asked why he did what he did, he answered that he could not stop helping people who were suffering.

Read this Article in EzineArticles.com:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Japanese-Government-in-War-and-Chiune-Sugihara-for-Visas-for-Lives&id=5741371




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Chiune Sugihara, Oriental Schindler

Even the value of virtue changes in ages. Japanese virtue was to die for their mother country in World War II. Japanese virtue changed after it lost the war. Country and government, which seemed to be unchallengeable, were gone. Individual people became equally or more important than the country. Though the virtue changes, there is a virtue, which did not change. It is humanitarian action based on love. Love to people across the ethnicity or country borders.

He was a diplomat. He is also famous as "Sempo Sugihara" from the sound of his first name. He entered into Waseda University majoring English literature. During his college days, Sugihara passed an examination to be a Foreign Ministry Scholarship Exchange Student. Japanese Foreign Ministry hired him and assigned him in Harbin, in China. Sempo learned Russian and German languages there. He became an expert of Russian Affairs.

Sempo was appointed to be vice council of Japanese Consulate of Lithuania in 1939. In 1940, Soviet Union took over Lithuania. Thousands of Jews poured into Lithuania from Poland. Jewish people in Lithuania were also seeking for exiting from those countries. Soviet Union requested consulates of other countries closed in Lithuania. Japanese Consulate, however, was still open. Jewish refugees rushed into Japanese Consulate for transit visa for exiting from those countries.

Sempo requested to issue transit visas to Jewish refugees to Japanese Foreign Ministry, but he could not get permission. Sempo decided to ignore Japanese Government approval and started to issue his own hand written visas in July 31, 1940. He saws those refugees were in danger if they stayed behind. He continued to issue visas to transit through Japan for their destination. He not only ignored his government authority, but also violated legal requirements to issue visas only to people with qualification of enough fund. He issued visas to unqualified refugees until September 4, 1940.

He spent 18 - 20 hours issuing visas a day. He talked with Russian authority and arranged Jewish refugees could take Trans-Siberian Train for their traveling. September 4, 1940 was the day when Sempo needed to leave back to Japan. The night before his departure, he stayed up awake all-night and continued to write visas, according to a witness. He gave out blank visas with Japanese Consulate Seal and his signature from the window of the train. Only unofficial record is available to learn the number of refugees whom Sempo Sugihara saved. They would be between 6,000 and 10,000. Since the visas were issued to husbands who could accompany his family, the people who could depart from Lithuania would be more than the record.

His wife later remembered him and commented about him that he was just an honest person. It is a profound statement. He did not give up to be honest to himself. He did what he believed right. His heroic story should not be buried in the history because Japan lost World War II.

Read this Article in EzineArticles.com:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Chiune-Sugihara,-Oriental-Schindler&id=5719666




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