View source for Chiune Sugihara

{{Short description|Japanese diplomat (1900–1986)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Chiune Sugihara
| image              = Sugihara b (3x4 cropped).jpg
| image_size         = 
| alt                = Photographic portrait of Sugihara
| caption            = Sugihara, before 1945
| native_name        = 杉原 千畝
| native_name_lang   = ja
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=y|1900|1|1}}
| birth_place        = [[Mino, Gifu|Kozuchi, Gifu]], Japan
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=y|1986|7|31|1900|1|1}}
| death_place        = [[Kamakura|Kamakura, Kanagawa]], Japan
| resting_place      = Kamakura Cemetery
| other_names        = "Sempo", Sergei Pavlovich Sugihara
| occupation         = Vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania
| known_for          = Rescue of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust
| spouse             = {{ubl|{{marriage|Klaudia Semionovna Apollonova|1918|1935|reason=div}}|{{marriage|Yukiko Kikuchi|1936}}}}
| children           = 4
| awards             = {{ubl|[[Order of the Sacred Treasure]], 5th Class (1944)|[[Righteous Among the Nations]] (1984)|[[Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]], 3rd Class (1996)|[[Order of Polonia Restituta]], 2nd Class (2007)}}
}}

{{nihongo|'''Chiune Sugihara'''|杉原 千畝|''Sugihara Chiune''|1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986}}<ref name="Tenembaum" /> was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese Empire]] in [[Kaunas]], [[Lithuania]]. During the [[World War II|Second World War]], Sugihara helped thousands of [[Jews]] flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through [[Japanese territory]], risking his career and the lives of his family.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Passage to Freedom : The Sugihara Story|last1=Mochizuki|first1=Ken|last2=Lee|first2=Dom|publisher=Lee & Low Books|date=1997|isbn=1880000490|edition=1st|location=New York|at=Afterword|oclc=35565958|url=https://archive.org/details/passagetofreedom0000moch}}</ref> The fleeing Jews were refugees from [[German-occupied Western Poland]] and [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland]], as well as residents of Lithuania.

Lithuania declared the year 2020 as "The Year of Chiune Sugihara" in his honor. Today, the estimated number of descendants of those who received "Sugihara visas" ranges between 40,000<ref>{{Cite news |last=Liphshiz |first=Cnaan |date=23 May 2019 |title=Holocaust hero Chiune Sugihara's son sets record straight on his father's story |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/holocaust-hero-chiune-sugiharas-son-sets-record-straight-on-his-fathers-story/ |access-date=2020-04-25 |work=Times of Israel |language=en-US}}</ref> and 100,000.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brockell |first=Gillian |date=January 27, 2021 |title='A Japanese Schindler': The remarkable diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during WWII |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/27/chiune-sugihara-jews-holocaust-japanese-schindler/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

In 2021 a street in [[Jerusalem]] was dedicated in his honor.

==Early life and education==
{{more citations needed section|date=April 2025}}
Chiune Sugihara was born on 1 January 1900 ([[Meiji period|Meiji]] 33), in [[Mino, Gifu prefecture]], to a middle-class father, {{nihongo|Yoshimi Sugihara|杉原好水|Sugihara Yoshimi}}, and an upper-middle class mother, {{nihongo|Yatsu Sugihara|杉原やつ|Sugihara Yatsu}}.<ref>The birthplace is recorded as Kouzuchi-town, Mugi district in the family registry of the Sugiharas</ref> When he was born, his father worked at a tax office in Kozuchi-town and his family lived in a borrowed temple, with the Buddhist temple {{nihongo|Kyōsen-ji|教泉寺}} where he was born nearby. He was the second son among five boys and one girl.<ref name="Tenembaum" /> His father and family moved into the tax office within the branch of the Nagoya Tax Administration Office one after another. In 1903 his family moved to [[Echizen, Fukui|Asahi Village]] in Niu-gun, [[Fukui Prefecture]]. In 1904 they moved to [[Yokkaichi, Mie|Yokkaichi]], [[Mie Prefecture]]. On 25 October 1905, they moved to [[Nakatsugawa, Gifu|Nakatsu Town]], Ena-gun, Gifu Prefecture. In 1906 (Meiji 39) on 2 April, Chiune entered Nakatsu Town Municipal Elementary School (now Nakatsugawa City Minami Elementary School in Gifu Prefecture). On 31 March 1907, he transferred to Kuwana Municipal Kuwana Elementary School in [[Mie Prefecture]] (currently Kuwana Municipal Nissin Elementary School). In December of that same year, he transferred to Nagoya Municipal Furuwatari Elementary School (now Nagoya Municipal Heiwa Elementary School). In 1912, he graduated with top honors from Furuwatari Elementary School and entered Aichi prefectural 5th secondary school (now Zuiryo high school), a combined junior and senior high school. His father wanted him to become a physician, but Chiune deliberately failed the entrance exam by writing only his name on the exam papers. Instead, he entered [[Waseda University]] in 1918 ([[Taishō period|Taishō]] 7) and majored in English language. At that time, he entered Yuai Gakusha, the Christian fraternity that had been founded by [[Baptist]] pastor Harry Baxter Benninghoff, to improve his English.

In 1919, he passed the Foreign Ministry Scholarship exam. From 1920 to 1922, Sugihara served in the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] as a [[second lieutenant]] with the [[79th Infantry Regiment (Imperial Japanese Army)|79th Infantry Regiment]], stationed in [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea, then part of the Empire of Japan]]. He resigned his commission in November 1922 and took the Foreign Ministry's language qualifying exams the following year, passing the Russian exam with distinction. The Japanese Foreign Ministry recruited him and assigned him to [[Harbin]], [[Manchuria]], China, where he also studied the Russian and German languages and later became an expert on Russian affairs.
[[File:Screen Shot Shussei todoke.png|thumb|upright|Chiune Sugihara's birth registry, indicating his birthplace as Kozuchi Town, Mugi District, nowadays known as Mino City in Gifu Prefecture]]

<gallery>
File:Observation Kozuchi-town from Mt.Ogura.jpg|View of Kozuchi-town from Mt. Ogura. Kyosenji Temple where Chiune Sugihara was born and village section Named "Chiune" which can be seen from the temple.
File:教泉寺.jpg|{{nihongo|Kyōsen-ji Temple|教泉寺}}. This temple was located at the address reported as the birthplace of Sugihara Chiune, and there was a Kōzuchi tax office that Chiune father served in the immediate area.
File:Chiune bridge in Chiune-cho, Mino-city 2017-02-08.jpg|Chiune Bridge. A bridge over Chiune-cho which was the origin of the name of Chiune.
File:Bus stop in Mino Chiune 2017-02-8.jpg|Bus stop of Chiune-cho where the name of Sugihara Chiune was derived
</gallery>

==Manchurian Foreign Office==
When Sugihara served in the [[Manchukuo]] (Manchurian) Foreign Office, he took part in the negotiations with the [[Soviet Union]] concerning the [[Chinese Eastern Railway|Northern Manchurian Railway]]. Sugihara was said to be the best Russian-speaker in the Japanese government, according to Australian translator [[Roger Pulvers]], and negotiated an agreement favourable to Japan with the Soviet Union which allowed Japan’s Northern Manchurian Railway's expansion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pulvers |first=Roger |date=2005-08-03 |title=Sugihara Chiune and the Japanese Conscience: Lest we forget |url=https://apjjf.org/roger-pulvers/1584/article |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |language=en-US}}</ref> 

During his time in Harbin, Sugihara married Klaudia Semionovna Apollonova and converted to Christianity ([[Russian Orthodox Church]]),<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/11/national/history/chiune-sugihara-man-conscience/|title=Chiune Sugihara: man of conscience|last=Pulvers|first=Roger|date=11 July 2015|work=The Japan Times Online|access-date=2017-08-04|language=en-US|issn=0447-5763}}</ref> using the baptismal name Sergei Pavlovich.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Levine |first=Hillel |date=4 November 1996 |title=In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked his Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews From the Holocaust |url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofsugiha00levi/page/69 |publisher=Free Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/insearchofsugiha00levi/page/69 69] |isbn=978-0684832517 }}</ref>

In 1934, Sugihara quit his post as Deputy Foreign Minister in Manchukuo in protest over Japanese mistreatment of the local Chinese.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness . Interactive Timeline (text-only) |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sugihara/timeline/text.html |website=www.pbs.org}}</ref>

Sugihara and his wife divorced in 1935, before he returned to Japan, where he married Yukiko Kikuchi (1913–2008).<ref>Masha Leon: "[http://forward.com/articles/14441/remembering-yukiko-sugihara-02723/ "Remembering Yukiko Sugihara]", forward.com</ref> They had four sons – Hiroki, Chiaki, Haruki, and Nobuki. As of 2025, Nobuki is the only surviving son and represents the Sugihara family at numerous ceremonies worldwide.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://annefrank.arte.tv/bd/#/fr/chapitre-1-le-chemin-vers-lautre/12-le-fils-du-juste/diaporama-le-fils-du-juste Anne Frank au Pays du Manga – Diaporama : Le Fils du Juste] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629103142/http://annefrank.arte.tv/bd/#/fr/chapitre-1-le-chemin-vers-lautre/12-le-fils-du-juste/diaporama-le-fils-du-juste |date=29 June 2019 }}, Arte, 2012</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Horovitz |first=David |date=14 October 2021 |title=81 years later, Chiune Sugihara's humanity continues to enable new lives |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/81-years-later-chiune-sugiharas-humanity-continues-to-enable-new-lives/ |access-date=2 March 2022 |website=[[The Times of Israel]] |language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref>

Chiune Sugihara also served in the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as a translator for the Japanese delegation in [[Helsinki]], Finland.<ref name="isbn0-9649674-0-5" />

==Lithuania==
[[File:Sugihara-konsulat w Kownie.JPG|thumb|Former Japanese consulate in [[Kaunas]]]]
{{Righteous Among the Nations}}
In 1939, Sugihara became a vice-consul of the Japanese Consulate in [[Kaunas]], the [[temporary capital of Lithuania]]. His duties included reporting on Soviet and German troop movements,<ref name="Tenembaum"/> 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.<ref name="Sugihara, Seishiro 2001">Sugihara, Seishiro (2001), ''Chiune Sugihara and Japan's Foreign Ministry, between Incompetence and Culpability''. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.</ref>

Sugihara had cooperated with [[Polish intelligence]] as part of a bigger [[Japan–Poland relations#World War II|Japanese–Polish cooperative plan]].<ref name="Palasz-Rutkowska">{{cite web|url=http://www.tiu.ac.jp/~bduell/ASJ/3-95_lecture_summary.html|title=Polish-Japanese Secret Cooperation During World War II: Sugihara Chiune and Polish Intelligence|publisher=Asiatic Society of Japan|date=March 1995|access-date=2011-04-03|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716023152/http://www.tiu.ac.jp/~bduell/ASJ/3-95_lecture_summary.html|archive-date=16 July 2011}}</ref>

In Lithuania, Sugihara started using the [[On'yomi|Sino-Japanese reading]] "Sempo" for his given name,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/chiune-sempo-sugihara | title=Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara }}</ref> since it was easier to pronounce than "Chiune".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-materials/lesson-plans/sugihara.html | title=Righteous Among the Nations: Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara }}</ref>

===Jewish refugees===
As the [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|Soviet Union occupied sovereign Lithuania in 1940]], many [[Polish Jew|Polish]] and [[Lithuanian Jews]] fearing persecution tried to acquire [[Exit visa|exit visas]].<ref>Cassedy, Ellen. "We Are Here: Facing History In Lithuania." ''Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal'' 12, no. 2 (2007): 77–85.</ref> While under Soviet occupation, it was announced that many foreign consulates in Kaunas would soon be closed. Per the Holocaust researcher and historian [[David Kranzler]], Dutch national Nathan Gutwirth asked the Dutch Ambassador to the Baltic states, L. P. J. de Dekker, for a travel visa. Per the granddaughter of another Dutch national Peppy Sterinheim Lewin made the request. Either one or both of the above sought to reach [[Curaçao]], then a Dutch colony, with subsequent plans to reach the United States.<ref>David Kranzler – The Grand Escape from Lithuania To Japan (The Jewish Observer, June 2000)</ref><ref name=TOI>{{cite news |last1=Lewin |first1=Alyza D. |title=How my grandmother's chutzpah helped Japan's consul save thousands of Jews |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-my-grandmothers-chutzpah-helped-japans-consul-save-thousands-of-jews/ |work=Times of Israel |date=26 April 2016}}</ref> Dekker was operating out of the Dutch consulate in [[Riga, Latvia]]. They were informed that no visa would be required, but travelers were instead required to obtain permission from the governor to land. Gutwirth or Lewin convinced de Dekker to issue the travel document with the second phrase omitted, instead only indicating that no visa was required.<ref name=Mishpacha>{{cite news |last1=Scarr |first1=Cindy |title=The Angel of Curacao |url=https://mishpacha.com/the-angel-of-curacao/ |work=Mishpacha Magazine |date=1 March 2022}}</ref> The island had been providing fuel via its oil refineries to [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]], and was unwilling to let in immigrants from enemy territories.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meierding |first1=Emily |title=The oil wars myth: petroleum and the causes of international conflict |date=2020 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca |isbn=978-1-5017-4895-0 |page=133 |chapter=7 OIL CAMPAIGNS: World War II}}</ref>

Dekker requested and authorized the Dutch honorary consul [[Jan Zwartendijk]] to issue the same text to Jews in Kovno who wished to escape from Lithuania.<ref>David Kranzler - The Grand Escape from Lithuania To Japan (The Jewish Observer, June 2000)</ref><ref name=Mishpacha/> In the period between 16 July and 3 August 1940, [[Jan Zwartendijk]] provided over 2,200 Jews with similar notations in their passports.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

In June 1940, as Italy entered the war, exit routes via [[Mediterranean Sea|the Mediterranean Sea]] were closed. The Committee in Greater Germany, forced to seek new outlets for emigration, arranged for the transportation of Jews from Germany across Europe and Asia (via the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]]) to Vladivostok, and then to Japan. From Japan the refugees were to embark for destinations in the Western Hemisphere.

Although the Soviet Union began offering citizenship to those living in occupied Lithuania, some instead still wished to emigrate—principally rabbis, yeshiva students, members of the intellectual classes and leaders of various Jewish communal and labor organizations. Travel visas to Japan were initially granted without much difficulty, and the [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee|JDC]], in collaboration with a number of other American Jewish groups, contributed toward the funds required for the Trans-Siberian trip to Japan of 1,700 persons.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

In July of 1940, Jewish refugees from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and other countries began arriving in Japan at [[Tsuruga, Fukui|Tsuruga]], [[Shimonoseki]] and [[Kobe]].<ref>[https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/aj/meta/image_B04013208900?IS_KIND=RefSummary&IS_STYLE=default&IS_TAG_S1=d2&IS_KEY_S1=B04013208900& JACAR.B04013208900], I-0881/0244</ref> Japanese embassies and consulates except Kaunas issued 3,448 Japanese transit visas from January 1940 to March 1941.<ref>JACAR.B04013209400,I-0882/0102</ref> Nearly half of the recipients held valid end-visas and immediately departed Japan.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
[[File:Number of European Jewish refugees arriving in Japan.jpg|thumb|right|Table 1: Number of European Jews arriving in Japan]]
The number of Jewish refugees who came to Japan, as seen in Table 1, has been documented as 4,500,<ref>Marthus, Jurgen "[https://books.google.com/books?id=x9PTQR93dNsC&pg=PA43 Jewish Responses to Persecution vol. III 1941–1942]" p. 43</ref> 5,000<ref>{{cite book |last= Warhaftig|first=Zorach |date= 1988 |title=Refugee and Survivor: Rescue Efforts during the Holocaust |publisher= Yad Vashem |isbn= 978-965308005-8}}</ref> or 6,000.<ref>Watanabe, Katsumasa (2000). 真相・杉原ビザ [The truth – Sugihara Visa] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Taisyo Syuppan
</ref> The 552 persons noted in the second row of the table do not match the number of departing persons edited by Jewcom.<ref>Jewcom. "[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1117689/ Emigration from Japan, July 1940 – November 1941]"</ref> The Siberian railway had been closed and no evidence supporting this figure is found in JDC annual reports or MOFA documents. For the 200 persons described in Note 1 of Table 1, there is a document in the Archives of MOFA<ref>{{jacar|B04013209600|title=Miscellaneous documents relating to problems of ethnic groups/ Problem of Jews: Vol. 11/ Division-3}}</ref> that the Japanese consulate of Vladivostok transferred about 50 Jewish refugees who had been stranded in Vladivostok to Shanghai with Soviet Union cargo on 26 April 1941.<ref>JACAR.B04013209600,0882/0245</ref>

====Sugihara's Visas====
At the time, the Japanese government required that Japanese transit visas be issued only to those who had gone through appropriate immigration procedures, had enough funds and an onward final destination. Most of the refugees did not fulfill these criteria. Sugihara dutifully contacted the [[Japanese Foreign Ministry]] three times for instructions. Each time, the Ministry responded that anybody granted a visa should be in possession of a destination visa to an onward country beyond Japan, without exception.<ref name="Tenembaum">{{cite web|author=Tenembaum B|url=http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/saviors/others/sempo-quot-chiune-quot-914/ |title=Sempo "Chiune" Sugihara, Japanese Savior|publisher=The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation |access-date=2011-04-03}}</ref>

Being aware that applicants were in danger if they stayed behind, Sugihara decided to ignore his orders and, from July 18 to August 28, 1940, he issued over 2100 transit visas. Given his inferior post and the culture of the Japanese Foreign Service bureaucracy, this was an unusual act of disobedience. He spoke to Soviet officials who agreed to let the Jews travel through the country via the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]].  His wife Yukiko who supported and encouraged him later recalled, "My husband and I talked about the visas before he issued them. We understood that both the Japanese and German governments disagreed with our ideas, but we went ahead anyhow."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leon |first=Masha |date=2008-10-24 |title=Remembering Yukiko Sugihara |url=https://forward.com/news/14441/remembering-yukiko-sugihara-02723/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=The Forward |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:1940 issued visa by consul Sugihara in Lithuania.jpg|thumb|Czechoslovakian passport with a Japanese transit visa issued in Kaunas, Lithuania on August 22, 1940 by Chiune Sugihara.]]

Sugihara continued to hand-write visas, reportedly spending 18 to 20 hours a day on them, producing a normal month's worth of visas each day, until September 4, 1940, when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed. By that time, he had granted thousands of visas to Jews, many of whom were heads of households and thus permitted to take their families with them. Some sources say that before he left, he handed the official consulate stamp to a refugee so that more visas could be forged.<ref>Wolpe, David. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/opinion/sugihara-moral-heroism-refugees.html The Japanese Man Who Saved 6,000 Jews With His Handwriting."" ''New York Times''. 15 October 2018. 15 October 2018.]</ref> His son, Nobuki Sugihara, adamantly insisted in an interview with [[Ann Curry]] that his father never gave the stamp to anyone.<ref>Interview with Ann Curry on 22 May 2019 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC</ref> According to witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel and after boarding the train at [[Kaunas railway station]], throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out of the train's window even as the train pulled out. His son Hiroki noted, "my father continued to pen visas even at the railway station, throwing the last stamped passports out of the window of our train".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pulvers |first=Roger |date=2005-08-03 |title=Sugihara Chiune and the Japanese Conscience: Lest we forget |url=https://apjjf.org/roger-pulvers/1584/article |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Consular Office with Original Consular Flag - Chiune Sugihara House.jpg|thumb|Consular office with original consular flag in Kaunas]]

In final desperation, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature (that could be later written over into a visa) were hurriedly prepared and flung out from the train. As he prepared to depart, he said, "Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best." When he bowed deeply to the people before him, someone exclaimed, "Sugihara. We'll never forget you. I'll surely see you again!"<ref name="isbn0-9649674-0-5">{{cite book |author=Yukiko Sugihara |title=Visas for life |publisher=Edu-Comm Plus |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-9649674-0-3 }}</ref>

Sugihara himself wondered about official reaction to the thousands of visas he issued. Many years later, he recalled, "No one ever said anything about it. I remember thinking that they probably didn't realize how many I actually issued."<ref name="isbn0-275-96199-0">{{cite book |author=Sakamoto, Pamela Rotner |title=Japanese diplomats and Jewish refugees: a World War II dilemma |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-275-96199-2 }}</ref>

====Numbers saved====
On the number of refugees passing through Japan who held Japanese transit visas for Curaçao issued by Sugihara, the so-called "Sugihara visa", there are two documents stating numbers of 2,200<ref>Guryn, Andrzej. [http://www.polish-jewish-heritage.org/Pol/maj_03_Romer_pomogal_Zydom.htm "Tadeusz Romer. Help for Polish Jews in Far East]</ref> and 6,000.<ref name= "isbn0-9649674-0-5"/>

K. Watanabe argued that there could be 6,000, arguing that use by three family members per visa is reasonable, that there were newspaper articles reporting the 6,000 figure, and that most of the refugees landing on Tsuruga were now admitted with a Sugihara visa. On 29 September 1983, Fuji Television aired a documentary "One visa that decided their fate – the Japanese who saved 4,500 Jews."

In 1985 some Japanese newspapers reported that he saved 6,000 people and others 4,500.<ref>Japan Times and Asahi on 19 January 1985, as 6,000, Nikkei and Mainichi on 17 January 1985, as 4,500</ref> ''[[The Japan Times]]'', dated 19 January 1985, had the headline "Japanese Man honored for saving 6,000 Jews";<ref>{{Cite web |last=Israel |first=David |date=2021-12-31 |title=Japanese Museum Marks Rescue of Jewish Refugees Who Landed at Tsuruga Port |url=https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/holocaust/japanese-museum-marks-rescue-of-jewish-refugees-who-landed-at-tsuruga-port/2021/12/31/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=Jewish Press |language=en-US}}</ref> the [[Los Angeles Times]] reported, "Sugihara defied orders from Tokyo and issued transit visas to nearly 6,000 Jews".<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=1985-01-19 |title=Ex-Japanese Envoy Honored by Israel |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-01-19-mn-8109-story.html |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> US newspapers {{Which|date=April 2023}} referred to Sugihara as "a diplomat who defied his government's orders and issued transit visas for 6,000 Jews".

Table 2 shows the number of refugees who had stayed at Kobe in 1941 based on Archives of MOFA. Refugees classified as "No visa" in the table are presumed to have held fakes of Japanese transit visas issued by Sugihara.<ref>Altman, Ilya. "[https://eltalpykla.vdu.lt/handle/1/34414 The issuance of visas to war refugees by Chiune Sugihara as reflected in documents of Russian Archives]" (2017)</ref> The Soviets wanted to purge Polish refugees who had been stranded in Soviet territory with Japanese transit visas as soon as possible,<ref>JACAR.B04013209400,i-0882/0036</ref> and so permitted them to get on the train to [[Vladivostok]] with or without a destination visa. The Japanese government was forced to admit them. On 8 April 1941, of the 1,400 Polish Jews staying at Kobe, about 1,300 were "for Curaçao" or "No visa".

[[File:Number of Europian Jewish refugees staying in Kobe(1941).jpg|thumb|right|Table 2: Number of European Jewish refugees staying at Kobe]]
The Polish ambassador in Tokyo, [[Tadeusz Romer]], remembered, "They (Polish refugees) only had fictitious Dutch visas for the island of Curaçao and Japanese transit visas." According to the refugee name list surveyed by Fukui Prefecture,<ref>JACAR.B04013209100,I0881/0448</ref> of the 306 persons who landed at Tsuruga Port in October 1940, there were 203 Poles. Their destinations were US 89, Palestine 46, Curaçao 24, and others. It is estimated that about 80% of them were on the Sugihara visa list.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kanno|first=Kenji|title=The Arrival of Jewish Refugees to Wartime Japan as reported in the local newspaper Fukui Shinbun(Part I: 1940)|url=http://www17.plala.or.jp/kenjikanno/Fukui1(jp).pdf|journal=ナマール(in Japanese)|publisher=Kobe・Yudaya Kenkyukai|number=22|date=2018}}</ref> The documents of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum<ref>ushmm "[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/polish-jews-in-lithuania-escape-to-japan Polish Jews in Lithuania:Escape to Japan]"</ref> and "Refugee and Survivor" do not mention the number of people saved by a "Sugihara visa".

More than half of the refugees who entered with invalid visas, including a "Sugihara visa", obtained valid visas with the help of [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee|JDC]], [[HIAS]], the Embassy of Poland, and the Japanese government, and embarked for host countries. In August–September 1941, Japanese authorities transferred about 850 refugees<ref>JACAR.B04013209700,I-0882/0326</ref> stranded in Japan to Shanghai before Japan and the United States began war. According to Emigration Table by Jewcom, the number of Polish refugees leaving Japan for various destinations was Shanghai 860, US 532, Canada 186, Palestine 186, Australia 81, South Africa 59, and others 207, in total 2,111.

The total number of Jews saved by Sugihara is in dispute, with estimates around 6,000; family visas—which allowed several people to travel on one visa—were also issued, which would account for the much higher figure. Research into the ratio of "accompanying family members" to valid visa holders published in the 2022 book ''Emerging Heroes'' by Akira Kitade  concludes that "3,000 is the appropriate final number" (p. 132). 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. Polish intelligence produced some forged visas.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://rcin.org.pl/Content/62825/WA303_82388_SDR-51-1-SI_Hadzelek.pdf |author=Aleksandra Hądzelek (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)|title= The memory of Sugihara and the "visas for life" in Poland |publisher=rcin.org.pl |year=2016}}</ref> Sugihara's widow and eldest son estimate that he saved 10,000 Jews from certain death, whereas Boston University professor and author [[Hillel Levine]] also estimates that he helped "as many as 10,000 people," but that far fewer people ultimately survived.<ref name="isbn0-684-83251-8">{{cite book |author=Levine, Hillel |title=In search of Sugihara: the elusive Japanese diplomat who risked his life to rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust |publisher=Free Press |location=New York |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-684-83251-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofsugiha00levi }}</ref> Some Jews who received Sugihara's visas did not leave Lithuania in time, were captured by the Germans after [[Operation Barbarossa|Germany invaded the Soviet Union]] on 22 June 1941, and perished in the Holocaust.

[[File:Recreation of Sugihara Consular Desk - Chiune Sugihara House.jpg|thumb|right|Recreation of Sugihara's consular desk in Kaunas]]
The [[Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan|Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] has opened to the public two documents concerning Sugihara's file: the first aforementioned document is a 5 February 1941 diplomatic note from Chiune Sugihara to Japan's then Foreign Minister [[Yōsuke Matsuoka]] in which Sugihara stated he issued 1,500 out of 2,139 transit visas to Jews and Poles; however, since most of the 2,139 people were not Jewish, this would imply that most of the visas were given to Polish Jews instead. Levine then notes that another document from the same foreign office file "indicates an additional 3,448 visas were issued in [[Kaunas]] for a total of 5,580 visas" which were likely given to Jews desperate to flee Lithuania for safety in Japan or Japanese occupied-China.

Many refugees used their visas to travel across the Soviet Union to [[Vladivostok]] and then by boat to [[Kobe]], Japan, where there was a [[Jewish]] community. Romer, the Polish ambassador in Tokyo, organized help for them. From August 1940 to November 1941, he had managed to get transit visas in Japan, asylum visas to Canada, Australia, [[New Zealand]], and [[Burma]], immigration certificates to British [[Mandatory Palestine]], and immigrant visas to the United States and some Latin American countries for more than two thousand Polish-Lithuanian Jewish refugees, who arrived in [[Kobe]], Japan, and the [[Shanghai Ghetto]], China.

The remaining number of Sugihara survivors stayed in Japan until they were deported to Japanese-occupied Shanghai, where there was already [[Shanghai Ghetto|a large Jewish community]] that had existed as early as the mid-1930s. Some took the route through Korea directly to Shanghai without passing through Japan. A group of thirty people, all possessing a visa of "Jakub Goldberg", were shuttled back and forth on the open sea for several weeks before finally being allowed to pass through [[Tsuruga]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.asjapan.org/web.php/lectures/1995/03|title=The Asiatic Society of Japan|access-date=26 May 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150106084220/http://www.asjapan.org/web.php/lectures/1995/03|archive-date=6 January 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Most of the around 20,000 Jews survived [[the Holocaust]] in the Shanghai ghetto until the [[Surrender of Japan|Japanese surrender]] in 1945, three to four months following the collapse of the Third Reich itself.

==Imprisonment and release ==
{{external media|image1=[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1071692 Sugihara and his wife] in front of a gate in Prague. It reads "No Jews allowed" in German but "Jews allowed" in Czech,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.parlamentnilisty.cz/arena/nazory-a-petice/Zdenek-Slanina-Japonsky-Schindler-Ciune-Sugihara-v-Praze-1940-41-371326 | title=Zdeněk Slanina: Japonský Schindler Čiune Sugihara v Praze 1940–41 }}</ref> because someone scratched out the "no"}}
Sugihara was reassigned to [[Königsberg]], [[East Prussia]]<ref name="isbn0-684-83251-8" />{{page needed|date=June 2018}} before serving as a Consul General in [[Prague]], in the [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|German-occupied]] [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]], from March 1941 to late 1942 and in the legation in [[Bucharest]], [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] from 1942 to 1944. He was promoted to the rank of third secretary in 1943, and was decorated with the [[Order of the Sacred Treasure]], 5th Class, in 1944. When Soviet troops entered Romania, they imprisoned Sugihara and his family in a [[POW]] camp for eighteen months. They were released in 1946 and returned to Japan through the Soviet Union via the Trans-Siberian Railway and [[Nakhodka]] port. In 1947, the Japanese foreign office asked him to resign, due to downsizing. Some sources, including his wife Yukiko Sugihara, have said that the Foreign Ministry told Sugihara he was dismissed because of "that incident" in Lithuania.<ref name="isbn0-684-83251-8"/><ref name="Lee">{{cite book |author1=Lee, Dom |author2=Mochizuki, Ken |title=Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story |publisher=Lee & Low Books |location=New York |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-58430-157-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/passagetofreedom0000moch }}</ref>

==Later life==
Sugihara settled in [[Fujisawa, Kanagawa|Fujisawa]] in [[Kanagawa Prefecture]] with his wife and three sons. To support his family he took a series of menial jobs, at one point selling light bulbs door to door. He suffered a personal tragedy in 1947 when his youngest son, Haruki, died at the age of seven, shortly after their return to Japan.<ref name="Sugihara, Seishiro 2001"/> In 1949 they had one more son, Nobuki, who is the last son alive representing the Sugihara family, residing in Belgium. Chiune Sugihara later began to work for an export company as general manager of a U.S. Military Post Exchange. Utilizing his command of the Russian language, Sugihara went on to work as a trade representative and live a low-key existence in the Soviet Union for sixteen years, while his family stayed in Japan.
<!-- "he represented a Japanese firm in Moscow for fifteen years." https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781644690246-012/html?lang=en -->
<!-- "Starting from 1960, Sugihara successfully worked in Moscow for 17 years as a trade representative." https://kokushikan.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/15480/files/2186_3709_020_04.pdf -->
[[File:Chiune visiting his son in Israel in December 1969.jpg|thumb|Chiune Sugihara and his son Nobuki in Israel, December 1969]]
[[File:Chiune Sugihara's Plaque at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|Plaque in front of Chiune Sugihara's tree on the Avenue of the Righteous at [[Yad Vashem]] in Jerusalem]]
In 1968, Yehoshua Nishri, an economic attaché to the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo and one of the Sugihara beneficiaries, finally located and contacted him. The next year Sugihara visited [[Israel]] and was greeted by the Israeli government. Sugihara beneficiaries began to lobby for his recognition by [[Yad Vashem]]. Sugihara was too ill to travel to Israel, so his wife and youngest son Nobuki accepted the honor on his behalf.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

In 1985, 45 years after the [[Occupation of the Baltic states|Soviet invasion of Lithuania]], he was asked his reasons for issuing visas to the Jews. Sugihara explained that the refugees were human beings, and that they simply needed help.

{{blockquote|You want to know about my motivation, don't you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes. Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people's lives... The spirit of humanity, philanthropy... neighborly friendship... with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation{{snd}}and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.<ref>Levine, Hillel (1996). ''In search of Sugihara: the elusive Japanese diplomat who risked his life to rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust''. New York: Free Press. p.259</ref> }}

When asked by Moshe Zupnik, who received one of the visas from Sugihara in 1940,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Goldberg |first1=Carey |title=The Honors Come Late For a Japanese Schindler;A Month of Tribute to Savior of Thousands |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/08/nyregion/honors-come-late-for-japanese-schindler-month-tribute-savior-thousands.html |work=The New York Times |date=8 November 1995}}</ref> why he risked his career to save other people, he said simply: "I do it just because I have pity on the people. They want to get out so I let them have the visas."

Chiune Sugihara died at a hospital in [[Kamakura, Kanagawa|Kamakura]], on 31 July 1986, and was buried in Kamakura Cemetery (Kamakura Reien).<ref>[https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g303156-d12909062-Reviews-Chiune_Sugihara_s_Grave-Kamakura_Kanagawa_Prefecture_Kanto.html Chiune Sugihara's Grave (TripAdvisor, 2018)]</ref> Despite the publicity given him in Israel and other nations, he had remained virtually unknown in his home country. Only when a large Jewish delegation from around the world, including the Israeli ambassador to Japan, attended his funeral, did his neighbours find out what he had done.<ref name="Lee" /> His subsequent considerable posthumous acclaim contrasts with the obscurity in which he lived following the loss of his diplomatic career.<ref>Fogel, Joshua A. "The Recent Boom in Shanghai Studies." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 71, no. 2 (2010): 313–333.
</ref>

==Honor restored==
His death spotlighted his humanitarian acts during World War II and created the opportunity to revise his reputation as a diplomat in his own country. In 1991 [[Muneo Suzuki]], Parliamentary Vice-President of Foreign Affairs, apologized to Chiune's family for the long-time unfair treatment by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-06-26 |title=Sugihara Chiune: "Japan's Schindler" |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/people/e00080/sugihara-chiune-japan%E2%80%99s-schindler.html |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=nippon.com |language=en}}</ref> Official honor restoration by Japanese Government was made on 10 October 2000, when Foreign Minister [[Yōhei Kōno]] set the award plaque and gave a commendation speech at the ceremony for Sugihara at the [[Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reitman |first=Valerie |date=2000-10-20 |title=Honors—Some Say Belated—for 'the Japanese Schindler' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-20-mn-39462-story.html |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Family==
[[File:Yukiko Sugihara May 2, 2000.jpg|thumb|right|Yukiko Sugihara in 2000]]
* Yukiko Sugihara ({{née|Kikuchi}}) (1913–2008) – wife. Poet and author of ''Visas for 6,000 Lives''. She was the eldest daughter of a high school principal in Kagawa Prefecture, and the granddaughter of a Buddhist priest in Iwate Prefecture. She was also well versed in German, and a member of Kanagawa Prefecture Poetry Committee and Selection Committee for Asahi Shimbun's Kadan poetry section. She was the author of ''Poetry Anthology: White Nights and other works''. She also converted to Russian Orthodoxy upon her marriage to Sugihara.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022|reason=I've found a blog saying Greek orthodox, which seems even less likely. But nothing saying Russian Orthodox.}} Died on 8 October 2008.
* Hiroki Sugihara (1936–2002) – eldest son. Studied in California upon graduating from Shonan High School in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. Translated his mother's book ''Visas for Life'' into English.
* Chiaki Sugihara (1938–2010) – second son. Born in Helsinki. Studied in California.
* Haruki Sugihara (1940–12 November 1947) – third son. He was born in Kaunas. Died in Japan aged between six and seven of [[leukemia]].
* Nobuki Sugihara (1948–) – fourth son. Attended [[Hebrew University]] in Israel in 1968 at the invitation of the [[Israeli Foreign Ministry]] and the Jewish Fund. Represents the Sugihara family as the only surviving son of Chiune. Since his attendance at the award ceremony of the Sugihara Righteous Forest in the outskirt of Jerusalem on behalf of Chiune in 1985, Nobuki has been actively attending Chiune-related events around the world as the family's spokesperson. Nobuki also heads NPO Sugihara, registered in Belgium, in order to promote peace in the Middle East.
* Grandchildren: Chiune Sugihara had 9 grandchildren (8 still alive) and 10 great-grandchildren. Among his grandchildren, those most active in promoting his legacy are Chihiro Sugihara and Madoka Sugihara, both children of Hiroki Sugihara.

==Legacy and honors==
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix= Saint
|name=Chiune Sugihara
|image=File:Chiune Sugihara - 杉原 千畝 - Pavlo Sergeyevitch.jpg
|titles=Righteous
|birth_date= 1 January 1900
|birth_place= 
|death_date= 31 July 1986
|feast_day=
|venerated_in=Eastern Orthodox Church
|beatified_date= 
|beatified_by= 
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by= 
|major_shrine= 
|attributes=
|patronage=
|issues=
|suppressed_date=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}

Chiune Sugihara is venerated in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-01-31 |title=Chiune Sugihara Remembered on Mount Zion in Jerusalem – Lithuanian Jewish Community |url=https://www.lzb.lt/en/2019/01/31/chiune-sugihara-remembered-in-jerusalem/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |language=en-US}}</ref>

'''Troparion, tone 8:'''

''A great light has shone forth to us from the Orient, for thou, o righteous Chiune, suffered as Paul the Apostle for the salvation of Old Israel. Now thy spirit rejoices in the Lord who said: A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you.''

In 1984, [[Yad Vashem]] bestowed the [[Righteous Among the Nations]] title on Chiune Sugihara, the only Japanese national to have been so honored. He was too ill to travel to receive the award at the Israeli embassy in Tokyo, so his wife and one or more of his children accepted the honor on his behalf.

[[File:150228 Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum Tsuruga Fukui prefecture Japan02n.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum]] in Tsuruga, Fukui, Japan, contains a Sugihara Chiune corner.]]
Sugihara Street in Vilnius, Lithuania, Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara Street in Jaffa, Israel, and the [[asteroid]] [[25893 Sugihara]] are named after him.

In 1992, the town of [[Yaotsu]] opened the Park of Humanity, on a hill overlooking the town. In 2000, the [[Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall]] was opened to the public. Since its establishment, more than 600,000 visitors, Japanese and foreign, visited and studied about Sugihara and his virtue.

A corner for Sugihara Chiune is set up in the [[Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum]] near [[Tsuruga Port]], the place where many Jewish refugees arrived in Japan, in the city of [[Tsuruga, Fukui]], Japan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tmo-tsuruga.com/kk-museum/index_e.html |title=Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum |publisher=Tmo-tsuruga.com |access-date=2016-10-29}}</ref>

[[File:SugiharaStreetNetanya.jpg|thumb|Sugihara Street, [[Netanya]]]]
The Sugihara House Museum is in [[Kaunas]], Lithuania.<ref name="sugiharahouse">{{cite web |url=http://www.sugiharahouse.lt/index_en.html |title=Sugihara House Museum |access-date=2011-04-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205223714/http://www.sugiharahouse.lt/index_en.html |archive-date=5 February 2011 }}</ref> The [[Conservative Jews|Conservative]] synagogue Temple Emeth, in [[Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts|Chestnut Hill]], Massachusetts, US, built a "Sugihara Memorial Garden"<ref name="urlInside Our Walls">{{cite web |url=http://www.templeemeth.org/AboutUs/SugiharaMemorial/tabid/169/Default.aspx |title=Inside Our Walls |access-date=2011-04-03 |archive-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110627112057/http://www.templeemeth.org/AboutUs/SugiharaMemorial/tabid/169/Default.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> and holds an Annual Sugihara Memorial Concert. In 1996, [[Albany, New York]] erected a plaque honoring Sugihara in the city's Raoul Wallenberg Park.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://friendsofalbanyhistory.wordpress.com/tag/1940s/|title=1940s – Friends of Albany History|date=2021|access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shabboshouse.org/mendels-messages/a-history-mystery-in-albanys-wallenberg-park/|title=A History Mystery in Albany's Wallenberg Park|access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref> 

When Sugihara's widow Yukiko travelled to Jerusalem in 1998, she was met by tearful survivors who showed her the yellowing visas that her husband had signed. A park in Jerusalem is named after him. Sugihara appeared on a 1998 Israeli postage stamp. The Japanese government honored him on the centennial of his birth in 2000.<ref name="Tenembaum"/>

In 2001, a [[sakura]] park with 200 trees was planted in [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]], to mark the 100th anniversary of Sugihara.{{clarify|date=March 2023}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wikimapia.org/22972003/Chiune-Sugihara-sakura-park|title=Chiune Sugihara sakura park – Vilnius|website=wikimapia.org|language=en|access-date=2019-07-29}}</ref>

In 2002, a memorial statue of Chiune Sugihara by Ramon G. Velazco titled "Chiune Sugihara Memorial, Hero of the Holocaust" was installed in the [[Little Tokyo, Los Angeles|Little Tokyo neighborhood]] of [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], US.  The life-size bronze statue depicts Sugihara seated on a bench and holding a hand-written visa.  Adjacent to the statue is a granite boulder with dedication plaques and a quotation from the [[Talmud]]: "He who saves one life, saves the entire world."  Its dedication was attended by consuls from Japan, Israel and Lithuania, Los Angeles city officials and Sugihara's son, Chiaki Sugihara.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sugihara+statue+dedicated+in+L.A.'s+Little+Tokyo.-a095463043|title=Sugihara statue dedicated in L.A.'s Little Tokyo|last=Kyodo News International, Inc.|website=The Free Library |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>

In 2007 he was [[posthumous award|posthumously]] awarded the Commander's Cross with the Star of the [[Order of Polonia Restituta]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/Download?id=WMP20080040041&type=2 |title=2007 Order of Polonia Restituta |format=PDF |access-date=2011-04-03}}</ref> and the Commander's Cross [[Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]] by the [[President of Poland]] in 1996.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/Download?id=WMP19960580535&type=2 |title=1996 Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland |format=PDF |access-date=2011-04-03}}</ref> Also, in 1993, he was awarded the Life Saving Cross of Lithuania.
He was [[posthumous award|posthumously]] awarded the Sakura Award by the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) in Toronto in November 2014.

In June 2016, a street in [[Netanya]], Israel, was named for Sugihara in the presence of his son Nobuki, as a number of Netanya's current residents are descendants of the Lithuanian Jews who had been given a means of escaping the Third Reich.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/06/08/national/history/israel-names-street-after-diplomat-sugihara-wwii-issuer-of-visas-for-life-to-jews/#.V1f6Xr5QaNg |title=Israel names street after diplomat Sugihara, who issued 'visas for life' to Jews during WWII |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=8 June 2016 |website=japantimes.co.jp |publisher=The Japan Times |access-date=8 June 2016 |quote=A ceremony on a planned street named after the late Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara was held in Netanya, Israel, on Tuesday. Sugihara issued transit visas to thousands of Jews people during World War II, which later came to be known as "visas for life," as they saved many from Nazi persecution. Netanya is known as a place where many Jews arrived after fleeing from the oppression thanks to visas issued by Sugihara. The plan to build the street marks 30 years since Sugihara's death. "It's such an honor. I wish my father was here," said Sugihara's fourth son, Nobuki, 67. |archive-date=8 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160608042525/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/06/08/national/history/israel-names-street-after-diplomat-sugihara-wwii-issuer-of-visas-for-life-to-jews/#.V1f6Xr5QaNg |url-status=dead }}</ref>
There is also a street named Rua Cônsul Chiune Sugihara in [[Londrina]], Brazil.

The Lithuanian government declared 2020 "The Year of Chiune Sugihara", promising to erect a monument to him and issue postage stamps in his honor.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|title= My father, the quiet hero: how Japan's Schindler saved 6,000 Jews|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/chiune-sugihara-my-father-japanese-schindler-saved-6000-jews-lithuania|last=Rankin|first=Jennifer|date=4 January 2020|access-date=5 January 2020}}</ref> A monument to Sugihara, featuring origami cranes, was unveiled in Kaunas in October 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-10-20|title=Chiune Sugihara Statue Unveiled in Kaunas – Lithuanian Jewish Community|url=https://www.lzb.lt/en/2020/10/20/chiune-sugihara-statue-unveiled-in-kaunas/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-26|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205222445/https://www.lzb.lt/en/2020/10/20/chiune-sugihara-statue-unveiled-in-kaunas/ |archive-date=5 December 2020 }}</ref>

[[File:Sugihara_Way_in_front_of_Congregation_Beth_David,_Saratoga_CA.jpg|thumb|Sugihara Way in front of Congregation Beth David, Saratoga CA, US]]
Since October 2021, there is a Chiune Sugihara Square in Jerusalem as well as a Garden named for him in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood of the city.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-10-12|title=Jerusalem square dedicated to Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat who helped Jews escape Nazis|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/10/12/national/sugihara-israel/|access-date=2021-10-17|website=The Japan Times|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Biographies==
[[File:Yukiko Sugihara and Valdas Adamkus commemorating memory of Chiune Sugihara.jpg|thumb|upright|Sugihara's widow with Lithuania's president [[Valdas Adamkus]] at a tree planting ceremony in [[Vilnius]], Lithuania in 2001]]
[[File:LTU-VNO Sugihara Park memorial 2022.jpg|thumb|Memorial, Sugihara Park, Vilnius]]
[[File:LTU-VNO Sugihara Park sakura cherry trees 2022.jpg|thumb|Sakura cherry trees, Sugihara Park, Vilnius]]

* {{cite book |last=Levine |first=Hillel |date=4 November 1996 |title=In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked his Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews From the Holocaust |url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofsugiha00levi |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0684832517 }}
* Yukiko Sugihara, ''Visas for Life'', translated by Hiroki Sugihara, San Francisco, Edu-Comm, 1995. {{ISBN|9780964899902}}
* Yukiko Sugihara, ''Visas pour 6000 vies'', traduit par Karine Chesneau, Ed. Philippe Picquier, 1995.
* A Japanese TV station made a documentary film about Chiune Sugihara. This film was shot in Kaunas, at the place of the former embassy of Japan.
* ''Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness'' (2000) from [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] shares details of Sugihara and his family and the fascinating relationship between the Jews and the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sugihara/ |title=Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness {{pipe}} PBS |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=2011-04-03}}</ref>
* ''A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust'' (2000), by [[Alison Leslie Gold]], is a book for young readers (grades 5–10). The book draws on interviews with Sugihara's wife and other witnesses and weaves in the stories of two Jewish refugee families. The epilogue describes how Sugihara was finally honored in his own country and in Israel.
* On 11 October 2005, Yomiuri TV (Osaka) aired a two-hour-long drama entitled ''Visas for Life'' about Sugihara, based on his wife's book.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.martygrossfilms.com/films/visas/visas.html |title=Visas that Saved Lives, The Story of Chiune Sugihara (Holocaust Film Drama) |access-date=2011-04-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218154750/http://www.martygrossfilms.com/films/visas/visas.html |archive-date=18 December 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Chris Tashima]] and [[Chris Donahue]] made a film about Sugihara in 1997, ''[[Visas and Virtue]]'', which won the [[Academy Award for Live Action Short Film]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141963/ |title=Visas and Virtue (2001) – IMDb |website=[[IMDb]] |date=20 April 1997 |access-date=2011-04-03}}</ref>
* A 2002 children's picture book, ''Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story'', by Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee, is written from the perspective of Sugihara's young sons and in the voice of Hiroki Sugihara (age 5, at the time). The book also includes an afterword written by Hiroki Sugihara.
* In 2015, Japanese fictional drama film ''[[Persona Non Grata (2015 film)|Persona Non Grata]]'' ({{lang|ja|杉原千畝 スギハラチウネ}}) was produced, [[Toshiaki Karasawa]] played Sugihara.

==Notable Sugihara Visa Recipients==
* Leaders and students of the [[Mir Yeshiva (Poland)|Mir Yeshiva]], Yeshivas [[Tomchei Temimim]] (formally of Lubavitch/[[Lyubavichi]], Russia) relocated to [[Otwock]], Poland and elsewhere.
* [[Yaakov Banai]], commander of the [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] movement's combat unit and later an Israeli military commander
* Joseph R. Fiszman, professor emeritus of Political Science at the [[University of Oregon]]<ref>Fiszman, Rachele. "In Memoriam." PS: Political Science and Politics 33, no. 3 (2000): 659–60.</ref>
* [[Robert Lewin (art dealer)|Robert Lewin]], a Polish [[art dealer]] and philanthropist
* [[Leo Melamed]], financier, head of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and pioneer of financial futures
* [[John G. Stoessinger]], professor of diplomacy at the [[University of San Diego]]
* [[Marcel Weyland]], translator 
* [[Zerach Warhaftig]], an Israeli lawyer and politician, and a signatory of [[Declaration of Independence (Israel)|Israel's Declaration of Independence]]
* [[George Zames]], [[control theorist]]
* Bernard and Rochelle Zell, parents of [[business magnate]] [[Sam Zell]]

==See also==
* [[Individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust]]
* [[Jewish settlement in the Japanese Empire]]
* [[Aristides de Sousa Mendes]]<!-- PLEASE RESPECT ALPHABETICAL ORDER -->
* [[Ho Feng-Shan]]
* [[Varian Fry]]
* [[Tatsuo Osako]]
* [[Setsuzo Kotsuji]]
* [[Giorgio Perlasca]]
* [[Thomas Hildebrand Preston, 6th Baronet]]
* [[John Rabe]]
* [[Abdol Hossein Sardari]]
* [[Oskar Schindler]]
* [[Raoul Wallenberg]]
* [[Nicholas Winton]]
* [[Jan Zwartendijk]]
* [[Persona Non Grata (2015 film)|''Persona Non Grata'' (2015 film)]]
* [[Nansen passport]]
* [[Ładoś Group]]
* [[Mir Yeshiva (Belarus)]]

{{Portal bar|History|Judaism|Biography|Japan}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book | author= Ayirtman-Sugihara, Esin | title= ''Chiune Sugihara'' | year=2020 | isbn=978-9464007862}}
<!-- Note before adding anything to this section. Please make certain that there are no duplicates. Please make certain that the material is not used in the references above. Please use the citation template used for all of the entries. Please make sure it is alphabetized by last name of the first author. -->
* Chapman, J.W.M., "Japan in Poland's Secret Neighbourhood War" in ''Japan Forum'' No. 2, 1995.
* {{cite book |author=Ganor, Solly |title=Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem |publisher=Kodansha America |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-56836-352-3 }}
* {{cite book |author=Gold, Alison Leslie |title=A Special Fate: Chiune Sugihara: Hero Of The Holocaust |url=https://archive.org/details/specialfatechiun00scho |url-access=registration |publisher=Scholastic |location=New York |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-439-25968-2 }}
* Goldstein, Jonathan, "The Case of Jan Zwartendijk in Lithuania, 1940" in Deffry M. Diefendorf (ed.), ''New Currents in Holocaust Research, Lessons and Legacies'', vol. VI, Northwestern University Press, 2004.
* {{cite book |author=Iwry, Samuel |title=To Wear the Dust of War: From Bialystok to Shanghai to the Promised Land, an Oral History (Palgrave Studies in Oral History) |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Basingstoke |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-4039-6576-9 }}
* Johnstone, George "[http://news.investors.com/Article/594130/201112081318/sugihara-visas-saved-lives-during-wwii.htm Japan's Sugihara came to Jews' rescue during WWII]" in ''Investor's Business Daily'', 8 December 2011.
* Kaplan, Vivian Jeanette, ''[[Ten Green Bottles (book)|Ten Green Bottles]]: The True Story of One Family's Journey from War-torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai'' (St. Martin's Press, 2004) {{ISBN|0-312-33054-5}}
* Kaplan, William, ''One More Border: The True Story of One Family's Escape from War-Torn Europe'', {{ISBN|0-88899-332-3}}
* Kitade, Akira, ''Visas of Life and the Epic Journey: How the Sugihara Survivors Reached Japan,'' Chobunsha, 2014, {{ISBN|9784886952615}}
* Kitade, Akira, ''Emerging Heroes: WWII-Era Diplomats, Jewish Refugees, and Escape to Japan'', United States, Academic Studies Press, 2022, {{ISBN|9781644698686}}
* Kowner, Rotem. 2023. "[[doi:10.1093/ahr/rhad035|A Holocaust Paragon of Virtue’s Rise to Fame: The Transnational Commemoration of the Japanese Diplomat Sugihara Chiune and Its Divergent National Motives]]." ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 128, Issue 1, Pages 31–63,
* {{cite book |author=Kranzler, David |title=Japanese, Nazis and Jews: The Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai, 1938–1945 |publisher=Ktav Pub Inc |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-88125-086-2 }}
* Krebs, Gerhard, {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051105014156/http://www.uni-hamburg.de/fachbereiche-einrichtungen/japanologie/noag/krebs.pdf |date=5 November 2005 |title=Die Juden und der Ferne Osten }}, ''NOAG'' 175–176, 2004.
* Krebs, Gerhard, "The Jewish Problem in Japanese-German Relations 1933–1945" in Bruce Reynolds (ed.), ''Japan in the Fascist Era'', New York, 2004.
* Mitsui Hideko, "[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2010.00124.x/abstract Longing for the Other : traitors' cosmopolitanism]" in ''Social Anthropology'', Vol 18, Issue 4, November 2010, European Association of Social Anthropologists.
* Pałasz-Rutkowska, Ewa & Andrzej T. Romer, "Polish-Japanese co-operation during World War II" in ''Japan Forum'' No. 7, 1995.
* {{cite book |author=Paldiel, Mordecai |title=Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust |publisher=distrib. by Ktav Publishing House |location=Jersey City, NJ |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-88125-909-4}}
* {{cite book|author=Saul, Eric|title=Visas for Life : The Remarkable Story of Chiune & Yukiko Sugihara and the Rescue of Thousands of Jews|location=San Francisco|publisher=Holocaust Oral History Project|year=1995|isbn=978-0-9648999-0-2}}
*{{cite book | author= Shiraishi Masaaki | title= ''Sugihara Chiune: The Duty and Humanity of an Intelligence Officer'' | location=Tokyo | publisher=Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture | year=2021 | url=https://www.jpicinternational.com/books/biography/c5d7d1b97e6afe00034296ef2abb07e9ef92fc08.html}}
* {{cite book |author1=Staliunas, Darius |author2=Stefan Schreiner |author3=Leonidas Donskis |author4=Alvydas Nikzentaitis |title=The vanished world of Lithuanian Jews |publisher=Rodopi |location=Amsterdam |year=2004 |isbn=978-90-420-0850-2 }}
* {{cite book |author=Steinhouse, Carl L |title=Righteous and Courageous: How a Japanese Diplomat Saved Thousands of Jews in Lithuania from the Holocaust |publisher=Authorhouse |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-4184-2079-6 }}
* Sugihara Seishiro & Norman Hu (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ahcymjgWwKoC ''Chiune Sugihara and Japan's Foreign Ministry : Between Incompetence and Culpability''], University Press of America. {{ISBN|978-0-7618-1971-4}}
* Sugihara Yukiko (1995), ''Visas for Life'', translation by Hiroki Sugihara and Anne Hoshiko Akabori, Edu-Comm Plus Editors, {{ISBN|978-0964967403}}
* Taniuchi Yutaka (2001), ''The miraculous visas – Chiune Sugihara and the story of the 6000 Jews'', New York: Gefen Books. {{ISBN|978-4-89798-565-7}}
* Watanabe Takesato (1999), "[https://web.archive.org/web/20051105014156/http://www.uni-hamburg.de/fachbereiche-einrichtungen/japanologie/noag/krebs.pdf The Revisionist Fallacy in The Japanese Media 1 – Case Studies of Denial of Nazi Gas Chambers and NHK's Report on Japanese & Jews Relations]" in ''Social Sciences Review'', Doshisha University, No. 59.
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110516193745/http://www.lt.emb-japan.go.jp/english/jp_lt_relations/venclauskas.pdf Lithuania at the beginning of WWII]"

==External links==

{{commons and category}}
* [http://www.sugihara-museum.jp/ The Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall in Yaotsu Town]
* [http://www.chiune-sugihara.jp/jp/ NPO Chiune Sugihara. Visas For Life Foundation in Japan]


{{Holocaust Lithuania}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugihara, Chiune}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]]
[[Category:Commanders with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta]]
[[Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy]]
[[Category:Diplomats of Manchukuo]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Japan]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox Righteous Among the Nations]]
[[Category:Japan–Lithuania relations]]
[[Category:Germany–Japan relations]]
[[Category:Consuls for Japan]]
[[Category:Japanese diplomats]]
[[Category:Japanese expatriates in Lithuania]]
[[Category:Japanese expatriates in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Japanese people of World War II]]
[[Category:Japanese Righteous Among the Nations]]
[[Category:Jewish Japanese history]]
[[Category:People from Gifu Prefecture]]
[[Category:People from the Empire of Japan]]
[[Category:The Holocaust in Lithuania]]
[[Category:People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust]]
[[Category:Waseda University alumni]]
[[Category:Aid for Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany]]