Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting the United States this week to celebrate the strong alliance that has developed between the U.S. and Japan over the seventy years since the end of World War II. Much of the media attention has thus far focused on economic cooperation between the two countries – specifically, the ongoing TransPacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, the announcement of a new military cooperation plan with the U.S., and Abe’s historic address to both Houses of Congress.
The day before the address to Congress, Prime Minister Abe visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, where he hailed a rare hero of Japan's brutal World War II experience. As he toured the museum he proclaimed, "As a Japanese citizen I feel extremely proud of Mr. Sugihara's achievement.”
Who is Sugihara?
Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who served as an Imperial Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania during WWII, helped some 6,000 Jews escape German-occupied Poland and Lithuania. Defying orders from the Japanese government, Sugihara, often referred to as the “Japanese Schindler,” issued thousands of transit visas to refugees between 1939 and 1940 that enabled them to travel to Japan. Upon receiving their visas, the refugees boarded trains to Moscow and then continued on to Vladivostok via the trans-Siberian railroad. It was from there that most of the refugees eventually arrived in Kobe, Japan, where they were allowed to stay before moving on to Shanghai, China, or other cities around the world that were accepting Jews.
Never Again
During the Prime Minister’s visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Abe and his wife, Akie, accompanied by three survivors who were recipients of “Sugihara Visas,” each lit a commemorative candle in the Hall of Remembrance. As he stood there, looking back on the 70 years since the end of the war, the prime minister said "my heart is filled with a solemn feeling…Never again.”
The story of Chiune Sugihara highlights the kindness and selflessness not only of this individual, but also of the many other Japanese who helped Jews find refuge during those difficult times and welcomed them in Japan. Today, tens of thousands of Jews can credit Sugihara for enabling their families to avoid what would have been almost certain death had they stayed in Europe. Abe and the Japanese people deservedly feel “extremely proud” of Mr. Sugihara’s efforts during the war, a shining beacon of moral courage in an otherwise dark period of Japanese history.
