It was your typical cold November day, yet the sun shone bright over the Sea of Japan when Bertie Frankel stood on the deck of the coast guard ship and looked out toward the coast. He saw the wooded cliffs jutting out over the city of Tsuruga, the old warehouses of red brick in the port and the dense, unconventional pine grove that stretched along the coastline.
The mayor of Tsuruga, Takanobu Fuchikami, was waiting for him when he got off the boat, carrying a decorated basket full of red apples. Frankel had been given a similar welcome from the locals some 77 years prior, when at the age of three, he arrived at the city's small port for the first time. On that first journey, Frankel had been accompanied by his parents, Benjamin and Perla, Jews from Krakow who came to Tsuruga in 1941 after having escaped from Poland to Lithuania, crossed both Europe and Asia on the Trans-Siberian railway and sailed from Vladivostok to the western shores of Japan.
The man responsible for saving them was Japan's deputy consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara. It is only in the last decade that Israelis have become aware of Sugihara, a man recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum as a Righteous of the Nations. But what they know is only the beginning. In Japan, Sugihara is celebrated as a national hero, and although he is not exactly Japan's version of Oskar Schindler, there can be no doubt he is a fascinating figure who laid out an extraordinary escape route for Europe's Jews.
Sugihara was a diplomat and an individualist – not exactly the norm in Japanese culture. He was born on the first day of the 21st century, Jan. 1, 1900, and the first sparks of non-conformism were evident in him early on in life. Under pressure from his father, a teenage Sugihara reluctantly agreed to take the medical school admission exam, but when it came time to take the test, he submitted a blank form. By the age of 19, Sugihara had been accepted to a position with the Japanese Foreign Ministry and he was dispatched to China. Unlike his diplomatic colleagues, who opted to learn English for their job, Sugihara chose to learn Russian. This choice would pay off for the diplomat later on in life.
During his years in Harbin, Sugihara earned a reputation as a cautious diplomat. But his time there would come to an end when in 1935, Sugihara resigned in protest of the atrocities the Japanese committed against the Chinese during Japan's occupation of the country. He was reinstated with the Foreign Ministry a few years later, but this time, he was sent to Lithuania. Alongside his diplomatic activities, Sugihara was tasked with reporting to Tokyo on the movement of Soviet and German troops in the region and finding out whether the Nazis were preparing to launch an attack on the East.
"A thousand people huddling outside"
Sugihara first encountered the plight of the Jews in Kaunas in the summer of 1940, when a German invasion of Lithuania seemed all but imminent. Many Polish Jews who had arrived in Lithuania after fleeing from their homeland began a frantic search for exit visas from the country. In a rare interview with Fuji TV station in Moscow in 1977, Sugihara said that at that time, there would often be "thousands of people huddling around the windows of the consulate building."
Dr. Zerach Warhaftig of the Mizrachi movement had proposed to Sugihara that Jews be allowed to receive Japanese transit visas, to allow them to escape, but the Japanese government rejected the idea. Luckily, Sugihara chose not to heed the government's orders, and starting late July 1940, began to issue visas to Jews. By this time, Sugihara was working against the clock as the Soviets who controlled the Lithuanian city of Kaunas at the time had already ordered him to leave.
Many of the Jews who arrived at Sugihara's office found it difficult to pronounce his first name. So instead of Chiune, they would call him "Sempo," according to the Sino-Japanese reading of the characters in his first name.
Sugihara wrote the visas out by hand, quickly issuing 2,139 visas, some of them for individuals and some of them valid for entire families, thereby saving many more Jewish lives.
The Jews did not know how they would get to Japan.
Sugihara left Kaunas in early September for a short stint in Berlin, yet even as he waited for his train to Berlin at the station, he continued to issue visas.
"I signed papers for another five or six people on the platform itself," he said in a 1977 interview. Asked by the interviewer whether he had ever refused a request for a visa, he said, "I do not recall refusing. I seemingly issued a visa for everyone who asked."
In fact, Sugihara is said to have gone so far as to throw the official consulate seal out the window of a train to a Jewish refugee, who was then able to continue to issue fake visas to others. While there is no truth to this story, numerous witness accounts make it clear that, working with limited time, Sugihara's hand was in pain from the non-stop writing. Sugihara was therefore assisted by his wife, Yukiko Kikuchi, and Moshe Zupnik, a yeshiva student from Slabodka. Thanks to their efforts, many of the yeshiva's students and rabbis were able to survive the war.
The Nazis conquered Kaunas on June 24, 1941, as part of Operation Barbarossa, mere months after "Sugihara's Jews" had escaped Lithuania. Nearly half of the 36,000 Jews who lived in the city before the war were murdered in the first months of the occupation, of them 9,200 were murdered on Oct. 28, 1941 at the Ninth Fort. Only 8% of the city's Jewish population, some 2,000 people, survived.
The Frankels' visa page only authorized their transit through Japan via the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean Sea. But like many other Jews, the family ended up staying in the Japanese city of Kobe for six months before they continued on to their next stop, New Zealand, where they would remain for over a decade before making aliyah to Israel in 1955.
Many of the Jews whose lives were spared thanks to Sugihara's visas visited Japan later on in life. At the museum commemorating Sugihara's deeds, a wall of photographs documents their visit to the site can be seen alongside the hundreds of Jewish names from Sugihara's list.
"Sugihara is responsible for the lives of 40,000 people today," Frankel told Mayor Fuchikami when the two toured the museum accompanied by Frankel's wife Nira and their son and grandchild.
At the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum, one can find a wristwatch pawned by a Jewish refugee to pay for his family's stay in Japan. They say the pawnshops would give the Jews high appraisals for their belongings to assist them on their journey. Other items on display include photographs of Jewish refugees gifted to the sailors on the ships that traversed the Sea of Japan on the way to Tsuruga, as well as information about refugees who fled Europe before the outbreak of the war.
As part of the effort to preserve Sugihara's memory in both the education system and Japanese public consciousness, an agreement was signed between six Japanese cities a few years ago that saw the joint establishment of "Sugihara's Route," a trail that allows people to see in person the different places where Sugihara lived and worked. In addition to Tsuruga, which served as the point of entry for many of the Jews fleeing Europe, one can also find Nagoya, the fourth largest city in Japan and the place where Sugihara went to school and Yaotsu, in Gifu Prefecture, the village where he was born.
In Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, a bronze statue of Sugihara was dedicated outside the Heiwa ("Peace") School a few months ago. The statue depicts the Japanese official holding out a visa page to a Jew holding a top hat and standing alongside his wife and young son. Chubu's district governor, Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura and Israel's Ambassador to Japan Yaffa Ben-Ari were all in attendance at the dedication ceremony, as was Sugihara's son Nobuki, who attended school at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem after the city's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial recognized his father was as a Righteous Among the Nations.
In Yaotsu, a village that borders the banks of the Kiso River, Sugihara is the main tourist attraction and the focus of the school curriculum. The village is surrounded by rice fields and mountains and is visible in all its glory from the Hill of Humanity Park, where in 2000, a monument and museum were dedicated in Sugihara's memory. On the outskirts of the park, there is a terrace with three bells. When the rope is pulled, the tolling of the bells can be heard throughout the valley. The museum in Yaotsu is built from wood. It is modest and straightforward.
Mayor Masanori Kaneko prides himself on Yaotsu's "Israeli connection." The role of coordinator for international relations is staffed by an Israeli (in the early 2000s, it was Yossi Krichley, who initiated and joined the Frankels' on their visit to Japan). In addition, Yaotsu is set to host Israel's delegation to the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
In the village school, Frankel got the chance to watch a play about the rescue of the Jews. After the performance, one of the children asked Frankel, "What would you say to Sugihara if you could meet him today?" Frankel replied, "I would thank him and ask him if I could help in some way. I owe him – and that is something I will never forget. If he could not refuse to help all the Jews who contacted him, I could not refuse to assist him."
The Anne Frank effect
The Japanese are not particularly knowledgeable about Jewish culture and the Nazis' actions during the war, but that is to be expected from a country that has barely any Jews and is bordered on one side by the Pacific Ocean. In Japan, the commemoration of Sugihara focuses on his heroism in "making the right choice."
One of the lines reciting in the play goes something like this: "Had I been in Sugihara's position, I do not know if I would have had the courage to make a similar choice." The story, then, is a cultural challenge that remains relevant to this day. Sugihara's message breaks from the Japanese collective norm, disavowing blind loyalty and demanding one follow one's individual conscience.
Professor Ben-Ami Shillony is a senior researcher of Japanese history in Israel who served as the head of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Asian Studies Department. He believes Sugihara's story has done much to increase Japanese awareness of the Holocaust, which he says is "a story that they did not have much interest in in the past."
In a conversation with Israel Hayom, Shillony said, "Only 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' which was a huge bestseller in Japan – not because of the Jewish angle but because it was about a nice, intelligent girl who deals with difficult challenges – comes close to Sugihara in its influence on Japanese citizens' knowledge of the Holocaust."
Q: Do you think the fervent commemoration of Sugihara in recent years is a sign of Japanese soul-searching regarding the country's conduct during the war?
"Absolutely. This is not atonement, but rather a type of defensiveness from Japan and an attempt to improve its historical image. It also relates to the atrocities Japanese soldiers carried out during the Second Sino-Japanese War, prior to World War II. So alongside the atrocities, here we have Sugihara, a figure to cling to, who saved Jews."
Following World War II, Sugihara stopped working for the Japanese Foreign Ministry. It is unclear whether he was fired or whether his position had simply become redundant when, during the Americans' post-war occupation of the country, the U.S. replaced the Foreign Ministry with a liaison office. Sugihara would go on to hold a number of odd jobs. He shunned the public eye and never came close to earning anything close to the recognition he now has in Japan. In 1985, he was named a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. One year later, at the age of 86, he died.
The Soviets also deserve credit
Shillony, who in his book "Japan As I See it," only focuses on the rescue of the Jews in passing, said, "It is not for certain that Sugihara saved Jews because they were Jews. He had no special interest in the Jewish people, and yet one cannot diminish his actions. He did save them.
"It is important to remember that almost all of the Jews who received visas from him were Poles, and that is probably not a coincidence; Sugihara needed Poles, and in particular the Polish underground, to find out information about the German military's movements on the Soviet border. In return, he repaid the underground by allowing it to send messages to the Polish government in exile in London through diplomatic mail."
Sugihara's close relationship with the Russians also apparently played a role in the rescue operation. Shillony points out that while studying the Russian language in the Soviet Union as a youth, Sugihara married his first wife, a young Russian woman, and even converted to Orthodox Christianity.
"He was a big fan of Russia, and it paid off. After the war, when the Russians took the consuls of the axis countries captive, they treated the Japanese terribly, but not Sugihara. When upon his release, he looked for work in Japan and did not find anything, he looked for work in Moscow, mediating trade between the countries. You can imagine this was no small matter, to allow a foreign citizen to work in the Soviet Union."
Shillony notes that other than Sugihara, many others involved in the rescue efforts have not been given proper recognition.
"The Soviet consul who allowed Jews who received visas to cross the Soviet Union on their way to Japan is worthy of recognition. After all, [Soviet dictator Josef] Stalin's policy was to allow people to join the Soviet Union, not travel through it. The Soviets acted in this instance beyond the letter of the law."
Also of note according to Shillony is Setsuzo Kotsuji, a Hebrew professor in Japan prior to the war who did a great deal for the refugees rescued by Sugihara during their stay in Japan.
"Kotsuji took advantage of his friendship with the then-Japanese foreign minister to extend the Jews' residency permits. After the war, he converted to Judaism and underwent a Jewish circumcision ceremony at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, traveled to Brooklyn and in his will, asked to be buried at the Har Hamenuchot cemetery, where he was indeed buried in 1973. He is the only Japanese citizen to be buried in Israel."
Shillony went to visit the grave with Kotsuji's relatives himself last year, where he recited the kaddish, or mourner's prayer.
"Learn from the folly of war"
There is another angle to Sugihara's unfinished story and that is his growing prominence in the Lithuanian arena. Despite the fact that many Lithuanians collaborated in the vicious murder of Jews during the country's Nazi occupation, particularly in Kaunas, it seems that present-day Lithuania sees in the Japanese diplomat's act a "Lithuanian story."
"The Sugihara Route" traverses not only Japan, but also Kaunas: the home where Sugihara lived, the Metropolis Hotel where he received Jewish refugees once the Soviets had shut down the consulate and the train station from which he left the country.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Kaunas in January of this year. While there, he made a stop at Sugihara's home. Two months ago, Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis reciprocated the visit, and while in Japan visited Sugihara's grave. In addition, Kaunas hosts Sugihara Week every year and student delegations make the long flight from Lithuania to Japan to learn about his legacy.
Kaneko, Yaotsu's mayor, invests a considerable amount of time in commemorating Sugihara and ensuring the education system focuses on him. On a tour of the Hill of Humanity, he makes a point about the Lithuanians and their efforts to commemorate Sugihara. According to Kaneko, "The central aim of teaching about Sugihara is the acceptance of others and the promotion of world peace; I am aware that Lithuanians were responsible for atrocious acts during the war, but I refuse to believe that the only Lithuanian interest in the story is financial" in nature.
Kaneko spoke passionately about the Sugihara project in his village and said tourists from all over Japan come to visit the site. "It is important for us that they leave the museum with a clear message about the folly of war, the magnitude of the atrocities in it and how much power one single person has."
Q: Do you believe Sugihara's actions fit in with Japan's post-war pacifism?
"Absolutely, but the message of his actions does not only relate to Japan's treatment of other countries. Japan is a fairly calm country, but there are many problems. One conspicuous issue is the phenomenon of suicides by children as a result of abuse or being publicly shamed at school. So part of our educational goal is to learn from Sugihara to accept the other, no matter what. His message is not just … to the world, but also inward – among the Japanese themselves."
That is the lesson from this incredible story of heroism: As Kaneko so succinctly put it, "Everyone should think like Sugihara." That is true for all of us, whether as individuals or as countries, during war and at times of peace.
