In Lithuania, the year 2020 was declared to be the Year of a Japanese man named Chiune Sugihara. But what did he do to get such a notable distinction?

Let's start from the beginning. Chiune Sugihara was born in 1900 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and despite his father’s wishes, he went on to study English and foreign cultures at Waseda University. In 1919, he passed the exam to enter the Foreign Ministry and was sent to Harbin in the northeast of China where he spent the better part of 16 years as a diplomat and studying at Harbin Gakuin to attain a fluent command of Russian. In 1939 he became vice-consul at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. At that time a lot of Jews fled from Poland into Lithuania hoping to be safe and were desperately trying to get exit visas. On the morning of July 18, 1940, Chiune Sugihara, looked out the window at a great crowd of refugees around the gate of the consulate.

He asked the Foreign Ministry of Japan for approval to issue visas to Jewish refugees, but he was denied. Twice. Chiune Sugihara cemented his legacy by handwriting visas for 18 to 20 hours a day and issued 2,139 visas, which saved thousands of people. The reason being one visa would be given to the head of the family but would cover the entire family. It is estimated around 40.000 descendants of saved Jews are alive today. Sugihara visas enabled Jews to travel to Japan or to the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai. From there they traveled to the USA, Canada, Australia, or Latin American countries. In the words of Chiune Sugihara, “I didn’t do anything special….I made my own decisions, that’s all. I followed my own conscience and listened to it.”

Explore these sites which are all deeply associated with Chiune Sugihara, including Yaotsu-town - the hometown of Chiune Sugihara, Nagoya City- where he spent his childhood, and Tsuruga City- the port town where the refugees arrived with their hands clenching the “Visas for Life” issued by him. Extending your journey to Takayama City, Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa City, it is highly recommended as these are areas reminiscent of an Old-Japan filled with untouched landscapes and its traditional culture.