When it comes down to moral convictions, if you are like most people – myself included-you would probably like to consider yourself one among those that would have stood against the tides of evil in their times.
Unfortunately statistics from our horrid past including events like the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, or even something seemingly less insidious as the deceptive popularization of leaded fuel despite all the signs of its toxicity plead otherwise. In all these examples, what’s true is that most people simply continue their lives without batting an eyelid. Most people simply make those adjustments that are necessary to live in compliance with the new order. This is exactly what makes someone like Chiune Sugihara so unique. It is one thing to stick to your convictions when the stake is low. It is a whole different ball game when you have everything you’ve worked for on the line simply because you feel strongly about your conviction and that too with nothing to gain from your effort than more opposition and loss from those you stand up to.
This is exactly the kind of person Sugihara Chiune was. When it came to his convictions, they were his and his alone and when challenged he was willing to go down with them.
Before he became a foreign diplomat for the Japanese government, his father’s wish was for him to become a doctor after clearing the national entrance exams. To his father’s disappointment, Sugihara who preferred to study languages deliberately failed the entrance exams writing only his name on the exam papers. Later on he joined Waseda University to study English in 1918. Later on he served as second lieutenant in the imperial army stationed in Korea from 1920 to 1922. After his stint in the army Sugihara took the Foreign Ministry’s language qualifying exams in which he cleared the Russian exam with distinction.
This led him to being recruited by the Japanese Foreign Ministry and began his journey as a diplomat with his first posting in Harbin, China. Early on his career, Sugihara demonstrated his personal conviction when he resigned from his post as Deputy Foreign Minister in the Manchurian Foreign Office over the Japanese mistreatment of the local Chinese population.
During this time, Sugihara also became an expert on Russian affairs and was soon recruited once again and posted in Lithuania. It was in Lithuania that Sugihara would demonstrate the lengths to which he would go to save those whom he knew would inevitably perish otherwise.
At the time of his presence in Lithunia, the country was under Soviet control. While a lot many Jews were provided the option for transit out of Europe by the Soviet Union, it was incredibly unsafe to travel through European territories without valid transit visas and only a small fraction of Jews had access to these visas. Those who undertook the journey without them frequently met with unpleasant fates when inspected during travel. Around this time, Sugihara was instructed by the Japanese foreign ministry to terminate his presence in Lithuania since they were no linger a sovereign nation and simply a territory of the Soviet Union.
It was under these circumstances, the impending closure of the consulate and the perceived threat to the lives of thousands of Jews who would be left behind with the ever increasing likelihood of German occupation, that Sugihara Chiune decided to issue thousands of Japanese visas to the Jews. Sugihara had contacted his higher ups for permission to save these lives not once, not twice, but thrice, citing humanitarian grounds and basic human dignity but his cries fell on deaf ears. He was ordered to shut shop within the month and return to Japan.
Once again, armed with the one power that he still held – his consular seal – he decided to hand write visas day in and day out over the next month sometimes working over 18 hours a day personally sitting with groups and families of Jews that lined up outside the consulate after hearing about the kind Japanese savior they came to call “Sempo”. It is believed that he had issued between 4500 to 6000 visas during that time. Even when the consulate was finally closed and he was forced to leave the city by the Soviets, he continued writing visas in the car to the station and while boarded in the train. Seeing the plight of the many Jews who stood looking hopefully towards him in his train began to pull out, he made his final attempt to help those gathered on the platform by flinging blank sheets of paper with the consular seal and signature that they would have to write in.
After his return to Japan, he was reassigned to several different posts, the last of which was in Romania. After the Soviet invasion of Romania, he was imprisoned in a POW camp for 18 months after which he was allowed to head back to Japan where he was laid of from his job (with some sources suggesting that his actions in Lithuania were to blame). He suffered the loss of his son soon after his return to Japan following which he had his youngest son who is the only one to remain among his children. To support his family he took up menial jobs wherever he could find them and later resorted to working in the Soviet Union for nearly 16 years alone while his family remained in Japan. He was later traced by one of the beneficiaries of his visa and recognized as “Righteous among the Nations”, a year after which he died. He had lived in obscurity in his hometown and his actions came to light only when a large Jewish contingent attended his funeral which brought to light his actions in his home town and country.
People like Sugihara are a rare breed. To live in conformity with the many is easy and, in a good society, a commendable pursuit. To live in the midst of evil and to only have good intentions but no actions is even easier. It lets you feel good about yourself while not doing anything about it. To live in the midst of evil, to run against its course in spite of dire consequences simply as a matter of personal conviction is hard. Very hard. And it’s even harder today when the consequences are divorced in place and time from their actions and tracing the effects of actions is almost impossible.
