Chiune Sugihara - A World War II Japanese Hero



Chiune Sugihara was the vice consul for Japan in Lithuania during 1939-1940. During his time there, he realized the horrible plight of the Jews for whom it was nearly impossible to travel. Against orders of his superiors, he decided to begin handing out transit visas in order to save these people's lives. In one day he would give out more visas than regularly given out in a month. During the last days of his time in Lithuania, he would spend 19-20 hours a day hand writing visas for people to escape Lithuania. He did this at a great personal risk, but is credited for saving over 6,000 jews. When asked why he did what he did  he said, "I myself thought this would the be righ thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people's lives...The spirit of humanity, philanthropy...neighborly friendschip...with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this difficult situations--and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage."

 Some people in the eastern orthodox Christian church consider him a saint, I personally see him as a true hero who thought less of his own welfare than that of his fellow man. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara) 

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