Chiune Sugihara

A Japanese diplomat. During World War II, while serving at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania, he issued Japanese transit visas to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi German persecution, helping thousands escape. He decided to issue the visas against the directives of the Japanese government, handwriting a massive number of them between July and August 1940. It is estimated that over 2,000 visas were issued, saving the lives of approximately 6,000 people including family members. Although he left the diplomatic service after the war, he was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem in 1984, and his honor was officially restored by the Japanese government in 2000.

Timeline

Category
Element

Year	Chiune Sugihara
1900	Birth of Chiune Sugihara (Period: January 1, 1900, Location: Mino (Gifu Prefecture))
1918	Enrollment at Waseda University (Chiune Sugihara, Age: 18 years old, Period: 1918, Location: Waseda, Tokyo) Marriage (Chiune Sugihara, Klavdiya Semyonovna Apollonova, Age: 18 years old, Period: Around 1918 – 1920s, Location: Harbin, China)
1919	Study in Harbin as a Ministry of Foreign Affairs Student (Chiune Sugihara, Age: 19 years old, Period: 1919–1924, Location: Harbin, China)
1924	Work at the Japanese Consulate-General in Harbin (Age: 24 years old, Period: 1924–1932, Location: Harbin, China)
1931	Mukden Incident and Establishment of Manchukuo (Age: 31 years old, Period: 1931–1932, Location: Manchuria (present-day Northeast China))
1932	Diplomacy with the USSR at the Manchukuo Foreign Ministry (Age: 32 years old, Period: 1932–1935, Location: Northeast China / Manchuria)
1933	Negotiations on the Transfer of the North Manchuria Railway (Chinese Eastern Railway, Age: 33 years old, Period: 1933–1935, Location: Harbin, Manchuria and the USSR)
1936	Soviet Refusal of Moscow Posting (Age: 36 years old, Period: 1936–1937, Location: Moscow, USSR) Marriage (Chiune Sugihara, Yukiko Kikuchi, Age: 36 years old, Period: April 7, 1936, Location: Japan)
1937	Posting to the Japanese Legation in Helsinki (Age: 37 years old, Period: 1937–1939, Location: Helsinki, Finland)
1939	World War II (Age: 39 years old, Period: 1939–1945, Location: UK, France, North Africa, Mediterranean, Atlantic, etc.) German Invasion of Poland and Outflow of Jewish Refugees (Age: 39 years old, Period: September 1939 – 1940, Location: Poland, Lithuania, etc.) Posting to the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas (Age: 39 years old, Period: November 1939 – September 1940, Location: Kaunas, Lithuania)
1940	Diplomatic Activities in Prague, Königsberg, and Bucharest (Age: 40 years old, Period: 1940–1945, Location: Prague (Czechoslovakia), Königsberg (Germany), Bucharest (Romania)) Issuance of the "Visas for Life" in Kaunas (Age: 40 years old, Period: July 18 – around August 28, 1940, Location: Kaunas, Lithuania) Closure of the Kaunas Consulate and Continuation of Visa Issuance (Age: 40 years old, Period: August – September 1940, Location: Kaunas, Lithuania)
1944	Detention of Diplomat by the Soviet Union in Romania (Age: 44 years old, Period: 1944–1947, Location: Bucharest, Romania and Soviet Detention Facilities)
1947	Resignation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and End of Diplomatic Career (Chiune Sugihara, Age: 47 years old, Period: 1947, Location: Tokyo and Other Locations, Japan) Return to Japan and Resignation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Chiune Sugihara, Age: 47 years old, Period: 1947, Location: Japan)
1969	Honored by the Israeli Government (Age: 69 years old, Period: 1969, Location: Israel)
1986	Death of Chiune Sugihara (Age: 86 years old, Period: July 31, 1986)
2000	Official Rehabilitation by the Japanese Government (Age: 14 years after death, Period: October 10, 2000, Location: Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo)

Map

Category
Element

Europe World

Group	List
British Politics	David Lloyd George Winston Churchill Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Clement Attlee Anthony Eden Edward Wood Ernest Bevin
French Politics	Georges Clemenceau Charles de Gaulle Paul Reynaud Édouard Daladier Léon Blum Philippe Pétain Maxime Weygand Maurice Gamelin
Jewish relief	Anne Frank Etty Hillesum Edith Stein Raoul Wallenberg Aristides de Sousa Mendes Varian Fry Nicholas Winton Chiune Sugihara
Nuclear Science	Lise Meitner James Chadwick John Cockcroft Ernest Walton Patrick Blackett Mark Oliphant Otto Hahn Otto Robert Frisch

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Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara

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