Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara, born in nineteen hundred, was a remarkable Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. His tenure during the tumultuous years of the Second World War marked him as a figure of immense courage and compassion.

In a time when many turned a blind eye, Sugihara took a bold stand to assist thousands of Jews fleeing the horrors of the Holocaust. By issuing transit visas, he enabled them to escape from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as from Lithuania itself. This act of defiance not only risked his career but also endangered the lives of his own family.

In recognition of his extraordinary humanitarian efforts, Lithuania declared the year twenty twenty as