Japan

(1900-1986)

Consul of Japan in Kaunas, Lithuania, was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations on October 4, 1984, for issuing transit visas for Jews stranded in Lithuania. Despite Japan’s strict visa policy, in the summer of 1940, Sugihara issued thousands of transit visas to Jews who had fled to Vilnius and Lithuania after Nazi Germany invaded Poland. These visas allowed Jews to obtain permission to travel via the Soviet Union to Japan. A year later Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and most of the Jews in Lithuania were murdered.