Chiune Sugihara
One of my favorite places to eat when I'm in LA is in Little Tokyo. After a satisfying meal we walked around and for the first time took notice of a statue of a seated gentleman, a memorial which was apparently erected in 2002. As we read the plaque and as I did more research when I got home, I realized the great historical significance of this unknown gentleman but wondered why we had never learned about or heard of him before?
The statue is of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese Schindler as it were. In 1939 and 1940 Sugihara was the Japanese Consulate in Lithuania during the Soviet takeover and the growing Nazi movement. It is said that Sugihara, cutting through the governmental red tape and violating orders, hand wrote visas for Polish and Lithuania Jewish refugees so that they could escape and live in Japan, saving 6,000 to 10,000 jews from a doomed fate. He spent 18-20 hours a day writing visas that would normally take a month to accomplish. Upon being asked to resign in 1947 from the foreign office, Sugihara returned to Japan and took menial jobs, such as selling light bulbs door-to-door, to support his family. He lived an anonymous life and died on July 31, 1986 at the age of 86.
During an interview the year before he died, he was asked why he risked his career to save other people, he answered by quoting an old samurai saying, "Even a hunter cannot kill a bird which flies to him for refuge." In spite of the publicity given him in Israel and other nations, he remained virtually unknown in his home country. Only when a large Jewish delegation from around the world, including the Israeli ambassador to Japan, showed up at his funeral did his neighbors find out what he had done.
My Jewish friend, Zoe, symbolically accepting a visa from Chiune Sugihara.
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