Sugihara's Achievements

Chuine Sugihara A hero is someone who is greatly regarded for his achievements and qualities.(Greene N.D. Para. 2) Chiune Sugihara is a hero in the opinion of thousands of people. His qualities enabled him to accomplish the achievements he would achieve in his life. Sugihara was born on January 1, 1900 in Yoatsu, Gifu pref. In junior high Sugihara was proficient in English and hoped to be an English teacher. As he grew older he developed an interest in foreign policy. Early on in his life he showed a tendency to follow his heart. An example of this would be when he purposely flunked a medical school entrance exam so he could enroll at Waseda University. While at the university he was recruited by the Japanese foreign ministry. The ministry

The Japanese had originally sent him to Lithuania to report back to Tokyo on German and soviet military strategy and troop movements. On a late July morning Sugihara and his family awoke to find hundreds of Jews waiting to enter the consulate to obtain transit visas. The Dutch consul, Jan Zwartenddijk, had told the Jews that Dutch controlled islands in the Caribbean didn't require formal entry visas. The only problem was that the Jews had to travel through the Soviet Union. The Soviets would allow the refugees to travel through their country on the condition that they could obtain an entry visa into Japan on their way to the Caribbean islands. The problem for Sugihara was that the Japanese government had refused to give him permission to create the visas. Sugihara requested permission three times and was denied all three times. After the third time Sugihara sat down with his family and discussed what their options were. His family agreed with him and that night he started writing the visas. For 29 straight days Mr.and Mrs. Sugihara wrote and signed visas. They wrote 300 visas a day which was normally how many they would do in a month. At the end of each day his wife would sit and massage is hands. He was signing visas all the way up to the time that his train was leaving the station for Berlin. As the train was leaving he gave the consul visa

They spent 18 months in a prisoner of war camp. After being released he and his family returned to Japan across the steppes of Russia. Ironically this was the same route that the thousands of refugees he had helped save took to freedom. Back in Japan Sugihara was unceremoniously dismissed from the foreign ministry and had his pension revoked. For the rest of his life Sugihara took odd jobs to support his family. Finally he took a job as a export manager in a business company in Moscow. In 1968 a survivor finally located Sugihara and for the first time he realized that the refugees he helped had actually survived. In 1985 Sugihara and his family was recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among Nations. They are the only Asians to ever receive this honor. When asked about why he did it he said " they were human beings and they needed help." Sugihara was also a religious man and he believed in a universal God for all people. He was fond of saying (according to Ron Greene) " I may have to disobey my government, but if I didn't I would be disobeying my