Even the value of virtue changes with the ages. The Japanese virtue was to die for their motherland in World War II. Japanese virtue changed after losing the war. The country and the government, which seemed indisputable, were gone. Individual people became equal to or more important than the country. Although virtue changes, there is a virtue that did not change. It is a humanitarian action based on love. Love for people who cross ethnic or national borders.
He was a diplomat. He is also famous as “Sempo Sugihara” because of the sound of his first name. He entered Waseda University with a major in English literature. During his college days, Sugihara passed an exam to be a foreign ministry scholarship exchange student. The Japanese Foreign Ministry hired him and assigned him to Harbin, China. Sempo learned Russian and German there. He became an expert on Russian affairs.
Sempo was appointed vice council of the Japanese consulate in Lithuania in 1939. In 1940, the Soviet Union took over Lithuania. Thousands of Jews came to Lithuania from Poland. The Jews of Lithuania also sought to leave those countries. The Soviet Union requested the closure of consulates of other countries in Lithuania. The Japanese consulate, however, was still open. The Jewish refugees rushed to the Japanese consulate to obtain a transit visa to leave those countries.
Sempo applied to issue transit visas for Jewish refugees to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but was unable to obtain the permit. Sempo decided to ignore the approval of the Japanese government and began issuing his own handwritten visas on July 31, 1940. He saw that those refugees were in danger if they were left behind. He continued to issue visas to transit Japan to his destination. Not only did he ignore the authority of his government, but he also violated legal requirements to issue visas only to qualified persons of sufficient funds. It issued visas to unskilled refugees until September 4, 1940.
He spent 18 to 20 hours issuing visas a day. He spoke to the Russian authority and arranged for the Jewish refugees to take the Trans-Siberian train to travel. September 4, 1940 was the day Sempo had to return to Japan. The night before his departure, he stayed up all night and continued to write visas, according to a witness. He gave blank visas with the seal of the Japanese consulate and his signature from the train window. Only an unofficial registry is available to know the number of refugees that Sempo Sugihara saved. They would be between 6,000 and 10,000. Since visas were issued to husbands who could accompany their family, the people who could leave Lithuania would be more than the record.
Later, his wife remembered him and commented on him that he was just an honest person. It is a profound statement. He didn’t give up to be honest with himself. He did what he thought was right. Its heroic history should not be buried in history because Japan lost World War II.