From Japan with love
YOLA Center and Liz Sapir have no memory of the moment because they were only toddlers at the time, but they know they owe their lives to the actions of then Japanese consul-general in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune-Sempo Sugihara.
YOLA Center and Liz Sapir have no memory of the moment because they were only toddlers at the time, but they know they owe their lives to the actions of then Japanese consul-general in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune-Sempo Sugihara.
The brave Japanese diplomat issued transit visas to their queuing relatives in the northern summer of 1940 so they could escape what would only months later be Nazi-occupied territory.
Sugihara, at great personal risk and against his government’s orders, went on to issue more than 3500 visas to Jews before all diplomats were ordered out of Lithuania.
In a deeply moving occasion at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) on September 19, Center, Sapir and about 30 other Jewish Sydneysiders – many who were also saved by Sugihara’s deeds in Kaunas – had the opportunity to meet and greet his visiting granddaughter Madoka, and her daughter Oriha.
“It was marvellous to see them both,” Center told The AJN, “because when I was two, Sugihara issued visas to my parents, my grandfather, two uncles and aunts and one cousin – we arrived in Japan in early 1941 and without visas, I’d hate to think what would have happened to us all”.
Sapir said, “My mother was in the queue outside the Japanese embassy in Kaunas … It’s absolutely amazing when you think of the number of Jews he saved – and he suffered greatly for that later, losing his job and his status, and it’s only fairly recently that his work has been recognised.”
Oriha read some of Sugihara’s memoirs written in 1978 before he died.
Sugihara wrote, “I ultimately reached the conclusion that humanity and compassion come first,” and, “I risked my career and duly executed my mission without hesitation – I’m confident even now that I did the right thing.”
Madoka shared some old photos of Sugihara with her family before revealing how before her grandfather died, he’d asked her brother, Chihiro, to make a copy of his memoirs and entrusted him as the only one in the family to hear his story first-hand.
“One thing that my grandfather explained to Chihiro, and that my brother passed on to me, was that life’s purpose for a human being is to be respective and protective … for the benefit of humanity,” Madoka said.
A panel in Yad Vashem’s Righteous of the Nations travelling exhibition – recently hosted by the SJM – is dedicated to Sugihara.
SHANE DESIATNIK
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