Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, during the refugee crisis created by the Second World War. In 1940, as Soviet control closed diplomatic missions and Jewish refugees sought routes out of Europe, he issued large numbers of Japanese transit visas despite restrictive instructions from his government.

Those documents allowed recipients to attempt the long journey across the Soviet Union and onward through Japan. Sugihara’s actions were later recognised by Yad Vashem, which named him Righteous Among the Nations. His story has become one of the best-known examples of a diplomat using administrative discretion to assist people facing persecution.