A Thousand Plain Sleepy Cedar Trees
Chiune Sugihara
The Google doodle of the day is dedicated to Sugihara Chiune, who was government official working in Lithuania that helped thousands of Jewish people escape Lithuania and to freedom.
He was a grand man for he put his life, and the life of his family, at risk to rescue the lives of many thousands of Jewish people to ensure that they would escape into safety. They saw the imminent threat of the Nazi invasion and attempted to flee as quick as they could from Lithuania to any who would take them. How did he do this? At the time the Japanese authorities issued that Visas should only be given to people who had sufficient funds and that — without any exceptions — a third destination outside of Japan was to be indicated on the Visa.
He ignored this order. He went above and beyond by ignoring the law and directive given to him from above, who no doubt were also only just “following orders” from others. His independent thinking and putting humanity above a party’s goals, or a government’s plans. The Soviet officials agreed to take the refugees at five times the standard ticket price. They took advantage of the dire situation to funnel more money into their pockets, while he spent 18–20 hours forging documents.
He ignored the rules, the laws, to take human decency and life into consideration and that is what we must take into account even in these days when we see people who are looking for a better life in another country. They are under the threat of their life if they were to remain at home, and even if they are not at an imminent threat of death, are we not to give those who seek refuge the benefit of the doubt when they look for a better life? Are we to deny them entry at the checkpoints under the guise of security?
Once they are in a country of ours, we judge them by their appearance and on the basis of the bad actions of others. A person from Libya, a country torn asunder by the fear of a lack of oil by European nations, is to come to Germany and be judged by the malicious actions of a fellow citizen? No, they should be judged individually, by their merit, by their own actions, and their ambitions. Not by their appearance, their religion, or the maliciousness or foolishness of acts committed by their fellow countrymen.
If a German commits a crime in Netherlands, would we blame the entire nation and all white Protestant Germans of doing the same? No, but if a Turkish man commits a crime in Germany, the German who appears Turkish, yet has lived in Germany his entire life, becomes a “Turk” and is blamed and all of those of their appearance clumped into one group. It is a shameful, knee-jerk reaction that is increasing, as is anti-Semite sentiment within Germany.
On this day, let us recognize that Chiune did not judge these men, women and children by their religion, or appearance, but by their humanity, by their despair, and decided to give them another chance. A chance that other countries would not give them. He saw the human. In Chiune’s own words:
You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.
People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives…The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation — and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.
Levine, Hillel (1996). In search of Sugihara: the elusive Japanese diplomat who risked his life to rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust. New York: Free Press.
