19. This Diplomat Began Gaming the Visa-Granting Process to Save People
Members of the Polish underground approached Sugihara with bogus visas to Curacao and other Dutch possessions in the Americas, and asked him to help with transit visas. He agreed to help save them and facilitate their escape by granting 10-day transit visas through Japan to their destinations. That entitled the bearers to travel across the USSR en route to Japan or Japanese-controlled territory. From there, they could continue to their final destination.
Sugihara started discreetly at first, issuing transit visas, and eventually visas to Japan as a final destination, to those who had fed him intelligence. He then began issuing visas to members of the underground in general. Eventually, he abandoned any pretense. Setting aside the fiction that he was granting transit visas to facilitate the travel of those already in possession of final destination visas, Sugihara began stamping visas for all and sundry, even those who lacked any travel papers whatsoever. By the time it was over, he had stamped thousands of visas. They were most likely the difference between life and death for those lucky enough to get them.
