Chiune Sempo Sugihara

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Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara

• The story of a Japanese rescuer and the people he
  saved.

These Japanese characters (pronounced sasho) mean
visa.
Marti MatyskaMandel Fellow
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The first Japanese diplomat posted to Lithuania

• Graduated from Japans training center for
  experts on Russia.
  
• Negotiated the purchase of the North Manchurian
  railroad.
  
• Since he could speak Russian, he was sent to
  Kovno, Lithuanian to report on troop movement in
  the Baltic Region. 1939

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Lithuanian Safe Conduct Passes

• Polish Jews escaped to Lithuania and obtain bogus
  visas to the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao
  
• Sugihara grants 10 day visas for transit through
  Japan to 2,140 refugees.
  
• He does this despite the objections of the
  Japanese ministry.
  

In the summer of 1941
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Sempo Sugihara and his wife Yukiko in Prague
Sugihara transferred to Prague, then Bucharest.
At the end of the war, the Soviets held him for
three years. He returned to Japan and worked
first under the American Occupation and then in
jobs dealing with trade or teaching.
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80 of the Kovno Jews made it out or Lithuania
Some had no money for the train and some decided
to chance staying in Europe
Forty-four years later, Warhodtig, a Kovno
refugee, met Sugihara and thanks him.
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The time was warped and I treasured the small
amount of courage I was born with.
Chiune Sugihara

• In 1986, Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara was honored by
  Yad Veshem with the title Righteous among the
  Nations. The award was accepted by his son since
  Sugihara was too sick to travel to Jerusalem.
  Sugihara died a year later.

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Poland
1.

• Many Jews escaped Poland as the Germans invaded.
  This train station in Bialystok show the
  confusion and urgency.

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2.
Kovno, Lithuania
Jews waiting outside the Lithuanian Embassy
to receive visas from Sugihara
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Moscow
3.

• The Jews are granted unprecedented permission to
  travel across Russia, a country that had been
  closed to foreigners

Postcard written by refugee Eugene Wasserman in
Moscow sent in Japan.
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Vladivostok
4.

• After a trek across the Soviet Union, refugees
  boarded a Japanese steamer to Kobe.
  
• Authorities confiscated their valuables.

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Kobe, Japan
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• After a brief respite in Kobe, Jews are deported
  to China.

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Refugees in front of the Buddha at Kanakura,
Japan.
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Shanghai
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• 1,000 refugees are confined to a ghetto
  designated for stateless refugees.
  
• Refugees had no knowledge of what was happening
  to their loved ones left in Poland.

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Credits

• The Visas that Saved Lives (video) 1992 Kazuma
  Co. 1995 Ergo Media Inc. PO Box 2037 Teaneck, NJ
  07666
  
• The US Holocaust Memorial Museum
  http//www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId100
  05594