Nei Saburo: The Diplomat Who Supported The Sugihara Scheme

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Fig. Vladivostock and Tsuruga

Source: Google Earth. 


Modification by the author. 

Fig. Nei Saburo

This is a schematic picture. The interested reader can visit the following site for the real image at the Miyazaki Nichinichi Shinbun site:

https://www.the-miyanichi.co.jp/special/happynews/admin/data/image/1631970490.jpg

Sugihara Chiune was a Japanese diplomat who saved 6000 Jewish refugees from persecution in WWII. 

In 1940, many of the Jewish people who miraculously obtained transit visas by Sugihara faced yet another obstacle when they arrived in Vladivostok via the Siberian Railroad. The Japanese Foreign Ministry was reluctant to allow so many Jewish refugees into Japan.

Nei Saburo, Japan's acting consul-general in Vladivostok, had studied at the same institution as Sugihara in Harbin. When he learned that all the visas issued to the Jewish refugees had come from Sugihara, he criticized the Japanese government for refusing to help these people in their time of existential threat. [1], [2]

Disregarding the orders, he allowed those Jewish people to board a ship bound for Tsuruga Port in Northern Japan.

Recent studies have revealed that Nei also issued handwritten visas to Japan. While his contribution may not have been as widely recognized as Sugihara's, it is certainly deserving of acknowledgment.

This episode highlights the existence of more than one Japanese individuals who adhered to traditional values but still did the right thing in their own unique way when it came to assisting Jewish refugees.

[1] youtube site: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Chiune+Sugihara+Doc.+1
(translation by the author)
[2] Chunichi Shinbun site: https://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/740918

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