The book is subtitled The Sugihara Story. This is about a Japanese man, Sugihara, who helped as many Jews as he could to get out of Nazi-controlled areas.
At the time, Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat living in Lithuania. His house is visited by a group of men representing a much larger group that is standing outside. They are Jews who want Sigihara to write them a document that will allow them to travel through Russia to go to Japan. From Japan, they could go elsewhere.
Jews could not go anywhere without such a document. There were so many asking, though, that Sugihara needed to ask permission from his own government. Three times he was denied permission. He knew, though, what could happen to the people if he didn't help them, so he went ahead anyhow and started making out the papers.
This was an example of the “no good deed goes unpunished” concept, since he and his family had to leave the country when the Soviets arrived, then spent time in an internment camp, and when they returned to Japan he was fired from his job.
However, in the years since then, people have realized just how brave and important his work was, and he received an award in Israel and other honors.
Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page
