Friday March 24, 8:00 PM
Foreign Ministry says no disciplinary action for 'Japan's Schindler'
(Kyodo) _ The government said in a position paper released Friday that the Foreign Ministry never imposed disciplinary action on a Japanese diplomat, who is referred to in Japan as "Japan's Schindler," for helping about 6,000 Jews escape Nazi persecution during World War II by issuing them Japanese visas against Tokyo's instructions.
Dismissing a widely held view, the ministry said that based on its documents there is "no truth" to the idea that it punished the late Chiune Sugihara, according to the paper.
The position paper was prepared in response to a question submitted to the government by House of Representatives lawmaker Muneo Suzuki. Suzuki was vice foreign minister at the time the ministry had a meeting with Sugihara's family, including his widow Yukiko, in October 1991.
Sugihara was dubbed the Japanese Schindler after Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who worked to save Jews during World War II and on whose life the 1993 movie "Schindler's List" was based.
Sugihara is known for going against the wishes of the ministry by issuing about 2,000 transit visas to Jews at the Japanese Consulate in Lithuania in 1940 while he was vice consul there. Japan and Nazi Germany were allies at the time.
Upon his return to Japan in 1947, he is said to have been punished for defying orders and asked to resign from the ministry.
The ministry said in the paper that Sugihara voluntarily resigned on June 7, 1947 but said it was "difficult to confirm" the reason for his resignation.
The paper said the ministry had instructed that visas be issued to people who met a set of qualifications such as that they had completed entry permit procedures for their destinations and covered their travel expenses but Sugihara had issued visas even to people who could not meet such qualifications.
According to the paper, Sugihara issued 2,132 transit visas to Lithuanian and Polish nationals, of which about 1,500 were given to Jewish people.
In the paper, the ministry praised Sugihara's conduct, calling it a "courageous and humanitarian decision."
In October 1991, the ministry told Sugihara's bereaved family that the diplomat's resignation was part of the ministry's shakeup in personnel shortly after the end of the war.
Sugihara died in 1986 at age 86.
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