01/01/1900: Chiune Sugihara Is Born On the First Day of the First Month of a Brand New Century
Brave Japanese Christians Chiune Sugihara With His 2nd Wife Yukiko
When a hero or heroine is born there are sometimes no indications of coming greatness, but when Chiune Sugihara was born his parents believed his birthdate to be very auspicious and decided that their son was born for some great destiny. His earthly debut came on the very first day of a new century after all. Of course, as a practical matter it is likely that a great many children were born to a great many parents all over the earth on that very day. And not all of those went on to be notably heroic, right? But, in this particular case it may have been more than just parental pride which prompted them to venture the oracle of greatness for their baby boy.
Born to a very traditional Japanese family of the Samurai lineage, he was a very sharp kid, academically inclined, and his father decided that he would become a doctor. Fathers decided such things in that society during that period of time, but Chiune did not wish to become a doctor. He was actually a bit of a rebel by the standards of Japanese society, to defy his father's wishes in this matter. But on the day that he took his medical entrance exam it is reported that he left the answers area entirely blank.... he did not answer. Period. He would not be becoming a doctor, it appeared. He saw another future for himself.
Would that future be the glorious activity that his parents envisioned for him? Probably not. He decided to begin a career as a Japanese civil servant. He would be a government paper pusher! Chiune was not one to seek fame too directly!
He entered Waseda University in 1918 to study the English language, and there was a Christian fraternity on that campus, called Yuai Gakusha, which had been founded by a baptist minister named Harold Beninhof. It would allow him to practice his English, and this also exposed him more directly to Christians and to Christianity.
In 1919 he passed his language exam, and it was time for adventure.... sort of. He went to the Japanese holding of Korea and served in the Japanese military for two years there as a Lieutenant in the Japanese Imperial Army, until 1922. After this he resigned his commission, deciding to seek work in international relations. He took the Russian language exam through the Japanese Foreign Ministry's testing division and scored very well, and he ended up with a governmental assignment to Harbin, China where he took time to learn German and also had opportunity to become pretty expert in Russian foreign affairs. He was developing a pretty useful skill set for foreign diplomacy.
Best of all, he made it to that time in life that most men hope for in their heart where you meet your soul mate. Klaudia Apollonova agreed to be his wife during his time in Harbin, China, and he was married within the Russian Orthodox Christian faith, converting to Christianity. This marriage would not last for his whole life...he would divorce with Klaudia eventually. But it was an important point of his life. It likely sealed him into a course for his coming moment with destiny. But in 1935 Chiune and Klaudia divorced, and there was also a glimpse that year of the man who would become so crucial in the future to a group of Jew in desperate straits. In 1935 Chiune quit his post there in Manchuria China in protest of the way that the Japanese, his countrymen, were mistreating the local Chinese residents. Japan was in charge of portions of China at that time. It was a pretty big move for a loyal traditionally raised Japanese man to quit his post in protest over the treatment of a people not his own. It probably dimmed his career prospects.
Chiune returned to Japan to work for foreign affairs that year and soon remarried to a Japanese woman named Yukiko who was to have his 4 children. He gained additional international experience during this time period by working with the Japanese delegation in Helsinki, Finland.
Eventually 1939 rolled around, and Chiune took an assignment as vice-consul in the Japanese Consulate in the city of Kaunas in the small but often courageous nation of Lithuania in northern Europe. It was a turbulent time in the world. The Nazis of Germany were making their moves for planetary domination, all of Europe was essentially conquered or imperiled, the times were dangerous and uncertain, and the Jews in Europe were on the menu for the powerful German war machine. But the ways of fleeing danger were being methodically blocked off for the European Jews. Not every nation was willing to take them in, despite the obvious danger that they were in. And not everyone was willing to risk angering Germany by giving solace or escape to the Jews being targeted for eventual extermination. But Lithuania was in the odd position of being sovereign yet occupied at that time by the Russians. The Russians were a pretty tough bunch, so the Germans had not yet decided to pick that fight, and Lithuania was temporarily a safe haven for fleeing Jews. And there were many Jewish that dwelled there already.
It quickly developed that Jews, in great numbers and especially from Poland, sought permission to travel using the Japanese consulate's authority onward across Russia and then into Japan and then into other safer nations. Russia was willing to offer rail travel for fleeing Jews on their Trans Siberian Railway, though at much higher-than-normal ticket prices, but Japan itself was not wishing to have Jews show up in Japan and stay there. They wanted them to have a pre-arranged third nation to travel onward to. So final destinations, eventual host nations for these refugees, had to be arranged for first. Chiune and others worked to find such nations, but not too many were willing. But finally working with the Dutch (through consulate rep Jan Zwartendijk) a people so often willing to help the needy, a couple of Caribbean final destinations were found for about 2,000 people, which offered some relief. Dutch Guyana (now Suriname) was willing to receive refugees, and so was the island of Curacao.
But the situation changed in late summer 1940 and Germany decided to march into Lithuania. Now, thousands of desperately dispossessed Jews had very little time left before they were captured by advancing Nazi troops. They were crying out for visas to anywhere.... a chance to escape....and there were suddenly only days or perhaps hours left to find an answer. Chiune had 3 times asked his superiors in Japan if he could just issue the visas and let it be worked out later in Japan concerning the final destination of these fleeing Jews. But each time he had been refused permission. And he was told not to keep asking.
It was crunch time, and Chiune and his wife had to make a decision. Should they betray their own nation and Chiune's superiors, and just issue visas that the Russians would honor allowing the Jews to pass through to Japan? Or should they follow orders. Chiune's career and future was probably ruined if he disobeyed orders, and his wife would share his fate. It was pandemonium throughout Lithuania, and the decision had to be made.
Chiune's wife found her own personal answer somewhere in the book of Jeremiah called Lamentations, some reports say: something she read there assured her that they must issue visas! He was in agreement with her. And so, he became, for the space of a number of days, a visa writing machine! He hand signed thousands of visas each day. His wife literally had to massage his hand at night to relieve the cramps. He worked nearly around the clock. He did little to see that any of the Jews met the actual requirements such as having money enough, and the right identifications, etc. He just signed visas that the Russians were willing to honor. And he handed them to Jews who stood ready and eager to flee.
Chiune and his wife stayed until what seemed the last possible moment to flee, and then they boarded a train just in the nick of time. It is reported that he was throwing visa papers out the train window to those who still needed them as the train left. He also left some signed visa forms behind for those who would choose to forge a visa. Not every Jewish person escaped obviously, but many more did than could have otherwise. Chiune apologized at the train station to a crowd of Jewish refugees that he had been unable to get to. They were apparently kind towards him despite their desperate situation.
Chiune was given new assignments during the remainder of the war though his Japanese superiors never forgot his disobedience. He was in Romania when Russia invaded that nation in 1944 and he and his family were swept up as Japanese enemies and taken to a prison camp for about 18 months. After his release and return home to Japan following the end of the war he was soon let go from political service. This was reportedly due to what he had done in Lithuania in defiance of government orders. He was a man in his mid-forties who had lost his career. After that point he lived in Japan and took such jobs as he was able to find to support his family. He lived an obscure life and was a poor man.
He might have been nearly forgotten to history except that a survivor that Chiune had aided was posted by Israel to the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo Japan, and he made it his business to try to locate Chiune, finally succeeding. Chiune was graciously welcomed to Israel in 1985 and awarded the title of 'Righteous Among the Nations' there...the only Japanese citizen to ever be so honored. His neighbors in Japan were said to be quite amazed that this man had lived among them for years in anonymity and they had thought him to be just an undistinguished old man - about 85 years old - who had worked unglamorous jobs. About one year later Chiune died in his mid-80's, having received at least a little of what seems to be some well-earned recognition.
Chiune is not exactly like Oscar Schindler, who pulled off a quite masterful deception for a long period of time while in great danger. Chiune's moment of truth came in different sorts of circumstance. More sudden, more intense, over more quickly. Yet he met the moment with courage and sacrifice, letting the chips fall where they might, he and his wife and family all paying a price, and he is credited with saving the second most Jewish lives during WWII, after Schindler. The exact number is unknown but thought to be nearly 10,000 people. It is hard to say how many descendants that now adds up to; he was a Christian, he had a chance to act out his love for his neighbor, and he took it. And God bless him and his family for doing so. If our own lives end up presenting us with such a choice let us pray that Jesus will give us this same love and courage to choose what is difficult and frightening above what serves our personal safety at the expense of our imperiled neighbor, right? We're all going to die anyway, so let's die having done the right thing if our particular life should ever hold such choices. As Christ died for us.