[LT] Šis geolobis paslėptas šalia Sugiharos gatvės Vilniuje.
Čijunė Sugihara (jap. 杉原千畝, angl. Chiune Sugihara, 1900 m. sausio 1 d. Jaotsu, Gifu prefektūra – 1986 m. liepos 31 d. Kamakura) – Japonijos diplomatas, konsulinis pareigūnas, 1939–1940 m. rezidavęs Kaune kaip Japonijos imperijos vicekonsulas. Antrojo pasaulinio karo metais išgelbėjo apie 10 000 Lietuvos, Lenkijos ir Vokietijos žydų gyvybių; išdavinėjo vad. „gyvenimo vizas“ į Japoniją, oficialiai tam neturėdamas Japonijos vyriausybės pritarimo.
1939 m. Čijūnė Sugihara iš Helsinkio atvyko į Kauną ir profesoriaus Juozo Tonkūno išnuomotame name įsteigė Japonijos konsulatą. Oficialiai jis tapo pasiuntinybės Rygoje filialo konsulu ekonominiams ryšiams su Lietuvos įmonėmis plėtoti, o neoficialiai diplomatiniais ir žvalgybos tikslais rinko informaciją apie padėtį pasienyje, sovietų kariuomenės dislokaciją.
1939 m. Vokietijai okupavus Lenkiją, nemaža dalis Lenkijos žydų pabėgėlių Lietuvoje bandė gauti vizas, norėdami išvykti į užsienį. Be vizų kelionės buvo pavojingos, o surasti diplomatinę atstovybę, kuri sutiktų išduoti vizą, buvo itin sunku. Šimtai pabėgėlių kreipėsi į Japonijos konsulatą Kaune su prašymais išduoti vizą į Japoniją.
Tuo metu Japonijos vyriausybė laikėsi neutralumo politikos žydų klausimu. Išduodant imigracines vizas reikalauta, kad būtų laikomasi imigracijos formalumų, o asmenys turėtų pakankamai lėšų pragyvenimui. Dauguma pabėgėlių neatitiko šių reikalavimų. Č. Sugihara 3 kartus konsultavosi su Japonijos Užsienio reikalų ministerija (URM) dėl tolesnio elgesio, instrukcijų. Ministerija kiekvienąkart atsakydavo, jog be išimties visi norintys gauti vizą privalo turėti trečiosios valstybės vizą, kad vėliau galėtų išvykti iš Japonijos.
1940 m. liepos–rugpjūčio mėn. Č. Sugihara kartu su žmona konsulate pradėjo išdavinėti vizas asmenine iniciatyva. Jis daugelį kartų ignoravo taisykles išduoti 10 dienų galiojančias tranzitines vizas į Japoniją. Atsižvelgiant į jo pareigas (jis nebuvo diplomatinis atstovas-ambasadorius, o tik konsulinis pareigūnas) bei Japonijos URM praktiką, tarnybos kultūrą, tai buvo beprecedentinis atvejis. Č. Sugihara susitarė su SSRS tarnautojais dėl žydų kelionės Transsibo geležinkeliu penkiaguba kaina nei buvo įprasta. Per dieną dirbdamas iki 18 valandų, jis išduodavo ranka pasirašytas vizas, viršydamas įprastinę mėnesio statistiką. Vizos buvo išduodamos ir šeimos galvoms, turėjusioms teisę kartu vykti su visa šeima.
1940 m. rugsėjo 4 d. konsulatas buvo uždarytas. Liudininkų teigimu, paskutinėmis akimirkomis prieš išvažiuojant į Vokietiją, konsulas pildęs vizas netgi traukinyje Ryga–Berlynas, kurias pasirašytas mesdavęs pro traukinio langą. Tikslus išduotų vizų skaičius nežinomas. Manoma, kad buvo išduota apie 2 139–10 000 vizų.
1947 m., atvykęs į Japoniją, Č. Sugihara atsistatydino. Japonijos vyriausybė jam išmokėjo išeitinę kompensaciją ir suteikė pensiją. 1985 m., prieš pat mirtį, suteiktas Pasaulio tautų teisuolio vardas.
1991 m. Vilniuje Č. Sugiharos vardu pavadinta gatvė. 1992 m. gimtajame mieste Yaotsu, Gifu prefektūroje, atidengtas memorialas ir pastatytas muziejus.
1999 m. Lietuvos ir Belgijos mokslo bei verslo žmonių iniciatyva įkurta viešoji įstaiga „Sugiharos fondas – diplomatai už gyvybę“ (pirmininkas Ramūnas Garbaravičius). Fondas siekia skleisti pilietinės visuomenės ir tolerancijos idėjas bei skatinti šalies piliečius nesitaikyti su ksenofobijos apraiškomis. Nuo 2001 m. kiekvienais metais fondo valdyba renka Tolerancijos žmogų.
Buvusiame Japonijos konsulato pastate (Vaižganto g. 30, Kaune) įrengtas Memorialinis Sugiharos namų muziejus su ekspozicija lankytojams, rengiami seminarai moksleiviams ir jaunimui, edukacinės programos. 2008 m. ekspozicija buvo labai atnaujinta ir modernizuota Japonijos vyriausybės lėšomis. Kasmet Sugiharos namus aplanko apie 7000 turistų iš Japonijos ir daugiau kaip 2000 turistų iš kitų užsienio šalių ir Lietuvos.
Fondo atstovams pasirašius bendradarbiavimo sutartį su VDU, 2000 m. gegužės 19 d. to paties pastato antrajame aukšte įkurtas VDU Japonistikos studijų centras, kuriame dėstoma japonų kalba, vykdomi tyrimai, susiję su Japonija ir Rytų Azijos regionu.
2001 m. spalio 2 d., minint Č. Sugiharos 100-ąsias gimimo metines, Vilniuje, dešiniajame Neries krante prie Baltojo tilto, pasodinta 200 japoniškų sakurų alėja – Japonijos dovana Lietuvai. Pamėnkalnio gatvėje atidengtas paminklinis akmuo. Sakuros taip pat pasodintos Prezidentūros kieme, Č. Sugiharos gatvėje bei skverelyje prie Sapiegos ligoninės. 7 sakuros pasodintos ir Kaune, prie buvusio Japonijos konsulato. Jubiliejaus proga išleistas proginis vokas, sukurti atminimo medaliai. 2003 m. balandžio 24 d. Nemuno saloje Kaune pasodintas 100 sakurų parkas.
2004 m. išleistas Č. Sugiharai skirtas pašto ženklas (dail. Kostas Katkus).
2005 m. japonų kūrybinė grupė Lietuvoje sukūrė vaidybinės dokumentikos filmą „Vizos šešiems tūkstančiams gyvybių“ su japonų ir lietuvių aktoriais, pasakojantį apie Č. Sugiharos diplomatinę ir humanistinę veiklą.
[EN] This geocache is hidden near Sugihara street in Vilnius.
Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝 Sugihara Chiune?, 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland and residents of Lithuania. Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives. Sugihara had told the refugees to call him "Sempo", the Sino-Japanese reading of the characters in his first name, discovering it was much easier for Western people to pronounce. In 1985, Israel named him to the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions, the only Japanese national to be so honored.
Chiune Sugihara was born 1 January 1900, in Yaotsu, a rural area in Gifu Prefecture of the Chubu region to a middle-class father, Yoshimi Sugihara (杉原好水 Sugihara Yoshimi), and Yatsu Sugihara (杉原やつ Sugihara Yatsu), an upper-middle class mother. He was the second son among five boys and one girl.
In 1912, he graduated with top honors from Furuwatari Elementary School, and entered Daigo Chugaku founded by Aichi prefecture (now Zuiryo high school), a combined junior and senior high school. His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a physician, but Chiune deliberately failed the entrance exam by writing only his name on the exam papers. Instead, he entered Waseda University in 1918 and majored in English language. At that time, he entered Yuai Gakusha, the Christian fraternity which had been founded by Harry Baxter Benninhof, a Baptist pastor. In 1919, he passed the Foreign Ministry Scholarship exam. The Japanese Foreign Ministry recruited him and assigned him to Harbin, China, where he also studied the Russian and German languages and later became an expert on Russian affairs.
When Sugihara served in the Manchurian Foreign Office, he took part in the negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning the Northern Manchurian Railroad. He quit his post as Deputy Foreign Minister in Manchuria in protest over Japanese mistreatment of the local Chinese. While in Harbin, he converted to Orthodox Christianity and married a Russian woman named Klaudia Semionovna Apollonova. They divorced in 1935, before he returned to Japan, where he married Yukiko Kikuchi, who became Yukiko Sugihara (1913–2008) (杉原幸子 Sugihara Yukiko) after the marriage; they had four sons (Hiroki, Chiaki, Haruki, Nobuki). As of 2012, Nobuki is their only surviving son. Chiune Sugihara also served in the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as a translator for the Japanese legation in Helsinki, Finland.
In 1939, Sugihara became a vice-consul of the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. His other duty was to report on Soviet and German troop movements and be Japan's eyes and ears in Eastern Europe as they were suspicious that Hitler wasn't being completely honest despite being allies. His mission was to find out if Germany planned an attack on the Soviets and if so, the details of said attack were to be reported to his superiors in both Berlin and Tokyo.
Sugihara is said to have cooperated with Polish intelligence as part of a bigger Japanese–Polish cooperative plan. As the Soviet Union occupied sovereign Lithuania in 1940, many Jewish refugees from Poland (Polish Jews) as well as Lithuanian Jews tried to acquire exit visas. Without the visas, it was dangerous to travel, yet it was impossible to find countries willing to issue them. Hundreds of refugees came to the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, trying to get a visa to Japan. At the time, on the brink of the war, Lithuanian Jews made up one third of Lithuania's urban population and half of the residents of every town as well. The Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk had provided some of them with an official third destination to Curaçao, a Caribbean island and Dutch colony that required no entry visa, or Surinam (which, upon independence in 1975, became Suriname). At the time, the Japanese government required that visas be issued only to those who had gone through appropriate immigration procedures and had enough funds. Most of the refugees did not fulfill these criteria. Sugihara dutifully contacted the Japanese Foreign Ministry three times for instructions. Each time, the Ministry responded that anybody granted a visa should have a visa to a third destination to exit Japan, with no exceptions.
From 18 July to 28 August 1940, aware that applicants were in danger if they stayed behind, Sugihara began to grant visas on his own initiative, after consulting with his family. He ignored the requirements and issued the Jews with a ten-day visa to transit through Japan, in violation of his orders. Given his inferior post and the culture of the Japanese Foreign Service bureaucracy, this was an unusual act of disobedience. He spoke to Soviet officials who agreed to let the Jews travel through the country via the Trans-Siberian Railway at five times the standard ticket price.
1940 issued visa by consul Sugihara in Lithuania, showing a journey taken through the Soviet Union, Tsuruga, and Curaçao
Sugihara continued to hand write visas, reportedly spending 18–20 hours a day on them, producing a normal month's worth of visas each day, until 4 September, when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed. By that time he had granted thousands of visas to Jews, many of whom were heads of households and thus permitted to take their families with them. On the night before their scheduled departure, Sugihara and his wife stayed awake writing out visa approvals. According to witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel and after boarding the train at the Kaunas Railway Station, throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out of the train's window even as the train pulled out.
In final desperation, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature (that could be later written over into a visa) were hurriedly prepared and flung out from the train. As he prepared to depart, he said, “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best.” When he bowed deeply to the people before him, someone exclaimed, “Sugihara. We’ll never forget you. I’ll surely see you again!”
Sugihara himself wondered about official reaction to the thousands of visas he issued. Many years later, he recalled, "No one ever said anything about it. I remember thinking that they probably didn't realize how many I actually issued."
The total number of Jews saved by Sugihara is in dispute, estimating about 6,000; family visas—which allowed several people to travel on one visa—were also issued, which would account for the much higher figure. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has estimated that Chiune Sugihara issued transit visas for about 6,000 Jews and that around 40,000 descendants of the Jewish refugees are alive today because of his actions. Polish intelligence produced some false visas. Sugihara's widow and eldest son estimate that he saved 10,000 Jews from certain death, whereas Boston University professor and author, Hillel Levine, also estimates that he helped "as many as 10,000 people", but that far fewer people ultimately survived. According to Levine's 1996 biography of Sugihara, In Search of Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat issued 3,400 transit visas to the Jews. Levine reports from his research of official Japanese foreign ministry documents entitled "Miscellaneous Documents Regarding Ethnic Issues: Jewish Affairs,' vol.10, 1940 Diplomatic Record Office, Japanese Foreign Ministry, Tokyo", that he discovered one list alone of "2,139 names, largely of Poles—both Jews and non-Jews—who received visas between July 9 and August 31, 1940...It is far from complete; many who received visas from Sugihara, including children, are not on it. By statistical extrapolation, it can be estimated that he helped as many as ten thousand escape, yet those who actually survived are probably no more than half that number." Indeed, some Jews who received Sugihara visas failed to leave Lithuania in time, were later captured by the Germans who invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and perished in the Holocaust.
The Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened to the public two documents concerning Sugihara's file: the first aforementioned document is a 5 February 1941 diplomatic note from Chiune Sugihara to Japan's then Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka in which Sugihara stated he issued 1,500 out of 2,139 transit visas to Jews and Poles; however, since most of the 2,139 people were not Jewish, this would imply that most of the visas were given to Polish Jews instead. Levine then notes that another document from the same foreign office file "indicates an additional 3,448 visas were issued in Kaunas for a total of 5,580 visas" which were likely given to Jews desperate to flee Lithuania for safety in Japan or Japanese occupied China. Moreover, there were also "some Jesuits in Vilna who were issuing Sugihara visas with seals that he had left behind and did not destroy, long after the Japanese diplomat had departed" which means that some Jews could have escaped Europe with forged visas issued under Sugihara's name.