When WWII broke out, Chinue Sugihara was the Japanese Consul to Lithuania.

One day he awakened to find the consulate surrounded by more than 300 Jewish people. Many had walked from as far away as Poland to seek exit visas to escape the Nazis.

Mr. Sugihara had been ordered not to grant exit visas to Jews. He knew he would be punished if he disobeyed. He told his wife and children that he intended to help the Jewish people. They agreed and wholeheartedly supported his decision.

From that moment, he started issuing exit visas until late at night. His hands and arms ached with so much pain that he put ice packs on his arm so he could continue to write. After the first 300 visas, the Sugiharas were ordered to leave Lithuania.  Before he left, he had written over 3,000 exit visas. Even while boarding the train, he continued to write exit visas in defiance of the Lithuanian and Japanese governments.  

The Sugihara family was sent to an internment camp for more than a year. Upon returning to Japan he was dismissed as a government official.

He never regretted his actions.

His wife, Yukiko Sugihara, recently spoke at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles as part of the Makiguchi Lecture Series. After her talk, a man approached her, presented her with flowers, and thanked her for his life. He explained he was issued exit visa 2,013 as a young boy. He also told her that today there are more than 50,000 descendants of the "Sugihara Jews."

[This story is from the December 26th, 1997, World Tribune.]