politics

Abe to pay tribute to 'Japan's Schindler' in Lithuania

15 Comments
By Vaidotas Beniusis

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A hero who defied the state in authority to help those who were to be "legally murdered" (capital punishment, hmm?). Commemorate him.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

To put it more correctly, Chiune Sugihara was "asked" to resign by the foreign ministry. The excuse was "downsizing." The real reason, of course, was that he defied the Japanese government, then allied with the Nazis, in issuing visas to Jews. After his forced resignation, Sugihara became a nonperson in his lifetime as far a Japan was concerned and remained so even after Israel honored him as "righteous among nations" a year prior to his death.

Before moving to the Soviet Union for 16 years, Sugihara did odd jobs, including selling light bulbs door-to-door.

Only after his death was Chiune Sugihara honored for his humanitarian deed in Japan. Let me quote Wikipedia: "Sugihara died ... at a hospital in Kamakura, on 31 July 1986. 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."

Of course, Abe will not touch on the rotten way Sugihara was treated by the Japanese government when seemingly honoring him.

One more correction. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were never allies. They did sign a non-aggression pact in August 1939, which was very short-lived.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

good guy

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Yes, this is a little known event. There was a program on the BBC (I think that it was BBC) about 10 years ago about this, and it was the first I had ever heard of it.

Whatever happened to Sugihara?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Well Kabukilover, the were allies (hence they divided a conquered land between each other), but up until the point Hitler decided to crush a "weakened USSR" (which was 1940). Alternative history remains a fiction to us, but we can not exactly say what would Hitler do had not Stalin lost the whole superpower image in the Finnish war. Otherwise, of course, irrelevant to the thread.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

The remarkable story of a selfless humanitarian who put protecting refugees ahead of politics and his own career.

There should be a special place in Heaven for people such as Chiune Sugihara.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

@Kabukilover - Good post with additional information. It is nice that he is being acknowledged in this way. It would be even a bit nicer if Abe would perhaps say that in spite of Japan, Sugihara did all of this.

I know what you are trying to say but Sugihara was never a non person after doing what he did (at least in my mind). He did far more than any of us posting here will ever do for humanity and thus whatever he did or people said of him afterwards could never come close to measuring up for what he did.

Anyway thanks for more information on this.

A great man and whatever one things of Abe - kudos to him for going there.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Sugihara was a man who was the somewhat rare convergence of a demonstration that anyone can take a stand against injustice and also an object lesson of why it is necessary for more people to take a stand against injustice.

It's worthy to honor him. It's worthier still to consider how Japan's leadership reacted to him, and to have a good, long, quiet think about how to reconcile that reaction with the desire of modern Japanese people to recognize him as a hero.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

KabukiloverToday 08:45 am JST

One more correction. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were never allies. They did sign a non-aggression pact in August 1939, which was very short-lived.

While that is technically correct, I fail to see how that made any difference to the Jews. Why then did they start fleeing when the Soviets invaded, rather than when the Germans invaded?

"The relative calm ended the following year when Moscow invaded the country. Crowds of Jewish refugees, mostly from occupied Poland, started lining up at the Japanese consulate seeking visas to flee. "After the Red Army entered Lithuania, refugees realised it will not be the same neutral country that gave them refuge a year earlier,"

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Only shame is that he isn't more well known. It's a bit unfortunate that many people who played a prominent role in avoiding the holocaust are not known by their own names but instead referred to as 'somewhere's Shindler'. There are quite a few and they don't get the recognition they deserve.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japan as a state helped the jews, not just those 15 diplomats. It was Hideki Tojo's order. 

Chiune Sugihara was "asked" to resign by the foreign ministry. The excuse was "downsizing." The real reason, of course, was that he defied the Japanese government

US(GHQ) fired tens of thousands of government officials called Koshoku Tsuiho, a Purge of Public Officials and replaced with communist Japanese to control Japan. 

USA(GHQ) was at that time controlled by communist spies.  Read "Venona Files"

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

Great article & story.

Kaunas and Lithuania's capital Vilnius named streets and squares after Sugihara while the former consulate is now a museum.

Classy gesture. Let's hope Sugihara's story is deemed newsworthy by J media tonight.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Sugihara was a true hero, and his nation, led by cowards at the time, destroyed the man whose name they now milk for their own purposes. If Abe has any honor, as well as praising the man he will touch in the tragedy of how Japanese leadership treated him, and how we must learn from his example and honor life above politics, and nation. He doesn’t have any honor, though, so he won’t; he’ll just find a way to play up Japan and Japan’s suffering and heroism.

And please, call the man by his name. The whole, “Japanese Schindler” not only smacks of inferiority complex, as it does with “Japan-Alps,” “Japan-this and that”, etc. Sugihara was a hero, it does not need to be compared with others.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

One more correction. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were never allies. They did sign a non-aggression pact in August 1939, which was very short-lived.

I agree with Mr. Naumoff. Hitler and Stalin were de facto allies. One might be tempted to describe the USSR from August 1939 until June 1941 as a tributary state of Germany given the massive amount of war-waging resources delivered to the Nazis by the Soviets; not to mention the free hand allowed Stalin in Finland, the Baltic and Romania.

Keep history as fact based as possible.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sugihara's efforts in saving 1,000s was truly a compassionate cause, and recognized by Israel as a hero, way before that title was awarded to him by his own country.

In fact there were 100s of "Schindlers" of many nationalities, who saved 10,000s of Jewish lives. George Duckwitz. Frank Foley, Irena Sendler (her story is truly remarkable, almost incomparable in the risks she (and others) took and Raoul Wallenberg (incredible story) come to mind. Many of these "heroes" were unknown to the wider world.

Their nationalities are not important.

Their humanity is.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

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