This is not a public news but just a thought of mine. Today I saw a video of CHIUNE SUGIHARA, who save lots of Jewish people in the war time. The video in the bottom is a digest of the long story. It’s a beautiful story but we Japanese don’t know. Recently this story was on air a few times, so some may know, but not much of us know this.
After seeing this video, of course I was moved and I think he is one of the nice Japanese we can be proud of. If I’m allowed to say objectively, maybe what Sugihara did is just a natural act for us. At least, in the bottom of the mentality of Japanese, we used to have this heart firmly in ourselves especially before the war.
After the war, new life concept covered Japanese people, and we lost basic humanity. Instead of that, we searched the money all the time. Which should be the human way ? The answer is easy.
This video is really nice story, but before I get proud of him as a Japanese, I lament the things we lost after the war. Some at least had the same heart as Sugihara did, but maybe not now in Japan.
This video in the bottom doesn’t have one beautiful story that should be told. What I was impressed most was that a person who was saved his life by Sugihara’s VISA later became an ambassador to Japan from Israel. And he searched for Sugiraha for a long time, when he finally found Sugihara, he showed Sugihara the VISA received from Sugihara 40 years ago. That paper was too rough but it surely showed how his life was saved. Later, Sugihara was given an emblem from Israel, but when he was invited to Israel, he was sick in bed being about to die.
Sugihara’s act was wonderful but at the same time, the heart of Jewish people who remembered him for long is equally beautiful.
When I saw this, something I lost in my heart told me that I must remember now.
Sugihara quit the Japanese government job soon after he got back because he disobeyed. After that, his life was not easy. To his biggest dismay, he and his wife lost one of their children ( he died) on their way back to Japan. Still, I know he didn’t regret what he did at all.
