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In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked His Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust
On August 2, 1940, as on every other morning for weeks before, a long line of Jewish refugees waited outside the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. Many had already witnessed Nazi atrocities in Poland and other Axis-occupied lands, and they were desperate to escape. To leave Europe they needed foreign transit visas. And at the window, the smiling Japanese consul was issuing them. Before his government closed down the consulate and reassigned him to Berlin, he would issue thousands of such visas.
This is the story of Chiune Sugihara, a diplomat and spy who saved as many as 10,000 Jews from deportation to concentration camps and almost certain death. Because of his extreme modesty, Sugihara's tremendous act of moral courage is only now beginning to become widely known.
Unlike Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat whose government sent him to Hungary with the express purpose of saving Jews, and Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who at least initially had a vested economic interest in protecting the lives of "his Jews," Sugihara had no apparent reason to perform his acts of rescue. Indeed, he acted in direct violation of official Japanese policy, which directed all government and military personnel to cooperate with the murderous policies of their Nazi allies. Examining Sugihara's education and background -- a background shared with the colonial administrators and military men who committed "the rape of Nanjing" -- author Hillel Levine finds nothing that explains his extraordinary behavior.
Levine's search has taken him from the old Japanese consul building in Kaunas (now Kovno), Lithuania, to the Australian outback; across Japan from the rice fields of Sugihara's native town to the boardrooms of conglomerates where his younger schoolmates still hold power. But the more Levine sought answers to Sugihara's puzzling behavior, the more he encountered questions. Remarkably, Chiune Sugihara was not the only Japanese official to save Jews. Yet none was ever punished for insubordination. Was there a secret Japanese plan to save Jews from Nazi genocide?
Much Holocaust scholarship focuses on the perpetrators of evil, trying to illuminate what drove ordinary men and women to commit horrifying and murderous acts. But perhaps as difficult to understand is the phenomenon of rescue: what inspired courageous individuals to swim against the tide of cruelty and indifference. This sensitive and nuanced biography concludes that there is no link between a person's background and his moral inclinations. Mercy remains a divine mystery despite our human craving to reduce it to behavioristic formulas.
This book does not attempt to explain "man's humanity to man." Instead Levine has woven a fascinating narrative of one man's heroic efforts to save lives, in the midst of so many seeking to destroy them.
This is the story of Chiune Sugihara, a diplomat and spy who saved as many as 10,000 Jews from deportation to concentration camps and almost certain death. Because of his extreme modesty, Sugihara's tremendous act of moral courage is only now beginning to become widely known.
Unlike Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat whose government sent him to Hungary with the express purpose of saving Jews, and Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who at least initially had a vested economic interest in protecting the lives of "his Jews," Sugihara had no apparent reason to perform his acts of rescue. Indeed, he acted in direct violation of official Japanese policy, which directed all government and military personnel to cooperate with the murderous policies of their Nazi allies. Examining Sugihara's education and background -- a background shared with the colonial administrators and military men who committed "the rape of Nanjing" -- author Hillel Levine finds nothing that explains his extraordinary behavior.
Levine's search has taken him from the old Japanese consul building in Kaunas (now Kovno), Lithuania, to the Australian outback; across Japan from the rice fields of Sugihara's native town to the boardrooms of conglomerates where his younger schoolmates still hold power. But the more Levine sought answers to Sugihara's puzzling behavior, the more he encountered questions. Remarkably, Chiune Sugihara was not the only Japanese official to save Jews. Yet none was ever punished for insubordination. Was there a secret Japanese plan to save Jews from Nazi genocide?
Much Holocaust scholarship focuses on the perpetrators of evil, trying to illuminate what drove ordinary men and women to commit horrifying and murderous acts. But perhaps as difficult to understand is the phenomenon of rescue: what inspired courageous individuals to swim against the tide of cruelty and indifference. This sensitive and nuanced biography concludes that there is no link between a person's background and his moral inclinations. Mercy remains a divine mystery despite our human craving to reduce it to behavioristic formulas.
This book does not attempt to explain "man's humanity to man." Instead Levine has woven a fascinating narrative of one man's heroic efforts to save lives, in the midst of so many seeking to destroy them.
323 pages, Hardcover
First published November 4, 1996
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July 1, 2009My mother and her parents were some of the Jews Sugihara rescued.
September 19, 2009
This book attempts to document Chiume Sugihara's life, put his actions in historical context and try to determine why he did what he did. It succeeds at all of those -- and certainly any effort to make known this obscure Righteous Gentile is praiseworthy.
I do, however, think it begins too slowly and ends too quickly. The book starts out with Sugihara's birth, and it goes into great detail -- too much detail, I think -- describing the struggles of Japan to pull itself into the modern world during this time period. Sugihara doesn't actually reach Kovno and start issuing visas until around page 200 or so. And then at the end, he shuts up his consulate and leaves, and the rest of the more than forty years of his life take up just a few pages.
A flawed book, but worth your time I think.
I do, however, think it begins too slowly and ends too quickly. The book starts out with Sugihara's birth, and it goes into great detail -- too much detail, I think -- describing the struggles of Japan to pull itself into the modern world during this time period. Sugihara doesn't actually reach Kovno and start issuing visas until around page 200 or so. And then at the end, he shuts up his consulate and leaves, and the rest of the more than forty years of his life take up just a few pages.
A flawed book, but worth your time I think.
February 20, 2008
The next time someone sees injustice, hatred, and inhumanity against people and think "but what can I do?" they should read this inspiring book about one man's heroism and the thousands of people he saved.
February 11, 2013
I wanted to learn about Sugihara because his efforts in getting visas for about 10,000 Jews during WWII took place in Lithuania. I decided not to read the entire book because I did not feel it was well written. I read enough to get a perspective on Sugihara and his activities.
December 25, 2012
The first 1/3 or so of the book was really boring and made worse by the fact the author seems convinced Sugihara was a spy. However, the rest of the book more than made up for it.
March 17, 2023
Tedious.
December 14, 2021
It‘s been 25 years since Hilel Levine published his book and to this day it remains as one of the best books ever written about Sugihara. The amount of research, effort and work that was done to gather all the necessary materials is astounding. All the people he met and interviewed, all the countries he went to, all the archive documents he gathered helps the reader to see Sugihara not only as a diplomat, but as a person with his own unique background and choices. It is also important to note that before this book, little research was done on Sugihara, making this book far more astounding. I honestly feel like this is the best book to go to if you want to find out as much as you can about Sugihara.
My only complaint about the book is that the author tends to speculate what life was like for Sugihara at different times. What games he could have played when he was a child, how did his youth days look in Harbin or what he must have felt when issuing visas. Whilst these little details help paint the clearer picture of Sugihara, they are only speculative. I can only guess that they were added to make the story look more complete. Nevertheless, for me they wear a hindrance to the book.
My only complaint about the book is that the author tends to speculate what life was like for Sugihara at different times. What games he could have played when he was a child, how did his youth days look in Harbin or what he must have felt when issuing visas. Whilst these little details help paint the clearer picture of Sugihara, they are only speculative. I can only guess that they were added to make the story look more complete. Nevertheless, for me they wear a hindrance to the book.
June 13, 2024
Deeply researched & painfully informative
Having absolutely no awareness of Japanese diplomatic involvement during the rise of Nazism in Eastern Europe and the plight of Jews escaping Germany, this is a spellbinding telling...
Having absolutely no awareness of Japanese diplomatic involvement during the rise of Nazism in Eastern Europe and the plight of Jews escaping Germany, this is a spellbinding telling...
October 6, 2025
I'm sure it is a fine book, I just don't enjoy this type of reading. it is so heavy and dry.
June 18, 2010
This could have been a better book, as even with such a remarkable subject, it managed to frustrate with frequent meanderings. It's a shame as the author spent years on detailed research. To learn easily about Mr Sugihara, I suggest the PBS DVD about him. I managed to read it with a good deal of skipping of extraneous detail.
The book did fill in the blank on his Russian wife and Russian Orthodox faith. Certainly a good deal of Mr Sugihara's actions may have been due to his Russian Orthodox faith. I found those pages of the author's interview with the very aged Russian wife, now in an Australian nursing home, simply amazing. This was a complex and profoundly good man who performed a heroic act over and over.
The book did fill in the blank on his Russian wife and Russian Orthodox faith. Certainly a good deal of Mr Sugihara's actions may have been due to his Russian Orthodox faith. I found those pages of the author's interview with the very aged Russian wife, now in an Australian nursing home, simply amazing. This was a complex and profoundly good man who performed a heroic act over and over.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews