Chiune Sugihara, Yukiko

A couple's courage in the face of terrible evil

2008/11/17

The Golden Triangle is an opium-producing region on the Indochinese Peninsula. As this case suggests, something that is known by a beautiful name is not necessarily beautiful in itself. In fact, the beautiful words can sometimes magnify the ugliness of the reality.

A case in point is Kristallnacht, or literally "crystal night." Also known in history as the Night of Broken Glass for the glittering fragments of shattered windows heaped on the streets, it was a nationwide pogrom that took place in Nazi Germany in 1938. Many Jews were killed, injured or hauled away on late Nov. 9 and early Nov. 10 exactly 70 years ago.

The Nazi persecution of Jews escalated from that point to sending them by trainloads to death camps. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, some of Poland's 3.5 million Jews fled north and reached Lithuania the following summer. It is well known that Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania, saved 6,000 Jews by issuing Japan-transit visas to them.

His wife, Yukiko, recalled that time in her autobiography. The couple's eldest son, wide-eyed at the hordes of refugees arriving at the Japanese Consulate, asked his mother, "What are they doing here?" Yukiko replied, "They came to ask for help because they don't want to be caught and killed by bad people." "Is dad going to help them?" the boy asked. After a moment's hesitation, Yukiko answered firmly, "Yes."

Lithuania had already been annexed by the Soviet Union, and the Japanese Consulate was being forced to close. In his final month before departure, Sugihara kept issuing hand-written visas in defiance of Tokyo's orders. According to Yukiko, his arm cramped, and while she massaged it to ease the pain, he would fall asleep from utter exhaustion.

Sugihara died in 1986. A devoted husband, he must have missed Yukiko terribly in heaven. But they were finally reunited when Yukiko joined him on Oct. 8. She was 94.

A memorial ceremony for Yukiko was held on Nov. 9 at Tokyo's Aoyama Sougisho funeral hall. It was the perfect date for remembering the courage of the Sugiharas and the unspeakable evil perpetrated by Nazi Germany.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 9(IHT/Asahi: November 17,2008)