 Yukiko Sugihara: "The Jews came to us and asked us to do this for them. But Japan was already allied with Germany, so we couldn't do something against Germany such as letting Jewish people go free. And then there was the Japanese Foreign Ministry; doing something like this would be against them, too. Who could say that we wouldn't lose our job position and our lives as well? There were five representatives who came--outside, of course, it was almost like a mob...
"My husband talked with them for two hours, and told them that he would decide. This was on July 27; it took a long time for his telegram to the Ministry to be answered. Actually, the Soviets had already entered Lithuania, and told each consulate to quickly close and leave. We had started to pack up and get ready to leave when these Jews came to us. They said that there were already about 200 or 300 persons who wanted visas. And, they said, there might be thousands more. When my husband realized that thousands of people were depending on him for their lives, he couldn't refuse to help them. There was only one month before we had to leave Lithuania.
"But we had three little children, five and three and one--one of my children, you know, was born in Europe--just a baby and so cute. And if those children were taken by the Nazis, they might be killed. So it was really difficult for us. We thought and thought about it all night. But finally I thought that this was God's mission for us. My husband and I believed that this was the reason why God had put us in the world--and that we could not turn our backs on what God would have us do.
"So my husband went downstairs to the consulate immediately after breakfast every morning, and did not come back upstairs until evening. He spent everyday writing visa after visa. More and more people came every day. We ourselves couldn't even leave the consulate to buy food.
"But the people who came were so happy. Some of them cried, some hugged each other, some danced for joy. Their expressions changed from sadness to joy. I could see them from the window of the third floor where I lived. Every day I could see the crowds of people. Sometimes they would kneel down and raise their hand to me as though I were God. I felt so sorry for them.
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Mr. Chiune Sugihara
(1900-1986) |
"Yes, my husband did what he did out of love for people. And, I believe, it was because he had faith in God, and he knew that he couldn't refuse to do what God expected him to do. We had to be ready to lose everything we had in order to do this. But again, we had to do what God expected us to do.
"My husband was very, very tired. About a week before we left, he came back upstairs and fell down because he was so tired. And I thought that I wanted him to quit. It was hard for me to watch him work so hard. Lithuania was a small country, and there were few people who needed visas to go to Japan. So we quickly ran out of the special papers for writing visas. My husband had to write everything out by hand. His fountain pen broke, so he had to use a ball point pen. Finally, there wasn't even enough ink, so he added water to what he had and continued.
"Three days before we left, we moved to a hotel. I thought we would be able to rest, but the Jews even followed us there. So my husband continued to write visas for them even on ordinary pieces of paper. Finally, they even followed us to the train station when we left. The last visas my husband wrote were dropped out of the train window. I can remember how they ran after the train."
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