Sugihara Chiune: Persona Non Grata By Soviet Union. He Was Dangerous.

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Sugihara Chiune was a Japanese diplomat who risked his carrier to save thousands of Jewish refugees in WWII.


Fig. Sugihara Chiune

This is a schematic picture. The interested reader can click the following site for real image:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/japans-schindler-a-genuine-hero-tangled-in-a-web-of-myth/


Disgusted by the Japanese military’s arrogance toward the Chinese population, Sugihara quit the assignment with the Manchuko and returned to Tokyo main office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his own memoir [1] he writes (translation by the author)

“A half year after my return to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was promoted to a duty at the Moscow embassy. However, no visa was issued for me. This is because my stay in Harbin was too long such that my relations with “White” Russians were too deep.”

During the Railroad deal, he conducted tough negotiations during which he forced Soviet to sell a strategic railroad at 1700 million yen, while the original Soviet offer was 6599 million. It should also be noted that the original offer was 1/10 of Japan's national budget around that time which signifies the importance of Sugihara’s contribution.

His activities were highly visible in the early 1930’s by the Russian diplomatic circles. His name appeared in the September 4, 1934 issue of Plavda, the main media of the Soviet Union of the time. [2] The Soviet Union regarded Sugihara dangerous.

This brought him to Finland. He writes [1] (translation by the author)

“From December 1937 on I worked hard for two and a half years. This was recognized by the main office such that I was instructed to open a new consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania”

This was a turning point for Sugihara. I will give detailed descriptions of the Lithuania event in other blog posts.

[1] Sugihara, C., “Memoir”, in Watanabe, K., and Sugihara, Y. “Ketsudan,” Taisho Shuppan, Tokyo, 2002.

[2] Altman, I., “The Soviet Union and the Transit of Jewish Refugees, 1939–1941”, in Sugihara Chiune and the Soviet Union: New Documents, New Perspectives, Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University, 2022　

 

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