Ingratitude from Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Chiune Sugihara explained to his bosses that Japan was the only practical destination country for those headed towards the Americas. Visas from his consulate were needed for departure from the USSR. Then, ignoring the Foreign Ministry’s demands that he stick to the rules, Sugihara continued to issue visas to and through Japan on his own. It finally ended on September 4th, 1940, when Sugihara had to leave because the consulate was about to close. He wrote visas en route from his hotel to Kovno’s train station, and kept at it on the train, throwing visas out the window into the crowd of desperate refugees. As the train pulled away, he threw blank sheets out the window. They contained only his signature and the consulate’s seal, so they could be written over and turned into visas.
Sugihara’s final words to the refugees were: “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best“. Many made it to Kobe, Japan, where there was a Jewish community. From there, most of them got asylum visas to other countries. Needless to say, Sugihara’s good deeds were met with ingratitude in Tokyo. His visas saved the lives of roughly 6000 Jews. About 40,000 of their descendants are alive today because of his actions. In 1985, Chiune Sugihara was named by the Israeli government as one of the “Righteous Among Nations”, an honorific for non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination. He is the only Japanese national to be so honored. He died a year later, in a hospital in Kamakura.
