Rokusen Nin no Inochi no Visa
A drama about Sugihara, the man who wrote visas and save around 6,000 Jewish lives in Lithuania.
Sugihara and his wife look out the window and find a whole crowd of people standing there.
Sugihara was in Manchura, interested in the railroad.
A waiter spills something on a Japanese soldier, and they react.
This is what Sugihara was working on. (A documentary noted that he got the railroad at a fair price and the Russians never really forgave him for that.)
Yukiko meets Sugihara at her home.
Sugihara explains his views about the military and diplomacy while he asks Yukiko to marry him.
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He was posted to Russia, but they didn't want him. They were still made over the railroad deal.
So he got posted to Finland instead.
Sugihara gets told that Germany is about to invade Poland.
His next move is to Lithuania.
They settle in a city that has no other Japanese in it at all. Sugihara's male secretary is of German descent.
Germany attacks Poland. Sugihara keeps track of German troop movements for the Japanese government. They want to know if Germany is going to invade Russia.
Jews fled from Poland into Lithuania.
Sugihara talks to a shopkeeper. This is based on a real incident where he gave a young boy money to see a movie and ended up getting invited to their home for Hanukkah.
One of the guests asks Sugihara if he can give them visas.
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The Japanese consulate gets orders for its closure.
Then we're back to the scene with all the people standing outside the consulate.
He meets with five leaders of the Jewish group.
There plan is to get transit visas. They would travel through Russia, go to Japan, and from there go to a third country. He is explaining to them some of the requirements for the visas.
He tries to get permission from the home office to issue the visas. The home office told him no visas.
He actually tried three times to get permission and was turned down each time.
He decides to issue the visas anyhow.
The pressure starts to get to him as his hand gets tired and he gets tired from singing document after document, but he wants to get as many done as he can.
A teacher shows up with the passports for all his students. The Russians, meanwhile, are pressuring Sugihara to only work certain hours.
The Soviets force him to close the consulate.
He moves into a hotel and signs visas from there.
He and his family will be taking a train and leaving the country, but even at the station he was still signing visas.
The movie goes on to describe the German's killing the Jews, Japan attacking Pearl Harbor, and the end of the war.
He and his family were arrested after the end of the war and held in an internment camp for about a year.
He returns to the Ministry, but he's fired.
One of their children later died.
Then his wife's sister passed away.
Some of those he had saved later found him to thank him.
There is also a book about him:
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