Chiune Sugihara
Japanese diplomat, Righteous Among the Nations (1900-1986)
Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝, Sugihara Chiune; 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his career and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania.
Lithuania declared the year 2020 as "The Year of Chiune Sugihara" in his honor. Today, the estimated number of descendants of those who received "Sugihara visas" ranges between 40,000 and 100,000.
In 2021, a street in Jerusalem was dedicated in his honor. There is street “Sempo Sugihara” in Tel Aviv-Jaffa as well.
Early life and education
Chiune Sugihara was born on 1 January 1900 (Meiji 33), in Mino, Gifu prefecture, to a middle-class father, Yoshimi Sugihara (杉原好水, Sugihara Yoshimi), and an upper-middle class mother, Yatsu Sugihara (杉原やつ, Sugihara Yatsu). When he was born, his father worked at a tax office in Kozuchi-town and his family lived in a borrowed temple, with the Buddhist temple Kyōsen-ji (教泉寺) where he was born nearby. He was the second son among five boys and one girl.
The public source identifies “Chiune Sugihara” as japanese diplomat, Righteous Among the Nations (1900-1986). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Chiune, Sugihara and Japanese.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q161381. VIAF identifies the subject as 22953110. The Library of Congress control number is nr91008289. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1900, 1986, 2020 and 2021.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chiune Sugihara” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.