HISTORY WATCH : Sugihara’s List

In chronicling its World War II history, Japan long has edited out various incidents, both good and bad. Chiune Sugihara, Japan’s version of Oskar Schindler, was one of those left out until well after his death eight years ago. Like the German industrialist Schindler, he is remembered gratefully for following his heart and conscience to save thousands of lives.

Sugihara, while consul general in Lithuania, defied the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s order not to help Jewish refugees, personally writing an estimated 1,600 exit visas for Jews fleeing Poland. The transit visas, many covering whole families, enabled 2,000 to 6,000 people to flee the Nazis from the eastern port of Vladivostok to Japan and, from there, to other countries.

For his defiance, Sugihara was reassigned to Berlin. Upon his return to Japan in 1947 he was fired by the postwar government. He was a modest man and for nearly 50 years was virtually unknown in his own country, even though in 1985 he was given Israel’s version of the Nobel Peace Prize. Not until 1991 did Japan officially praise Sugihara.

There is no acclaimed movie such as “Schindler’s List” to tell the world of Sugihara. The Japanese Education Ministry, however, recently approved the first textbook that includes his case. Robert Barram, a Boston University communications professor, is leading an effort to broadcast on U.S. television a 1992 Japanese docudrama about Sugihara called “Visas for Life” and to circulate it among colleges, libraries and study groups. Sugihara should not be forgotten in his country, or here.