Museum of “Visas for Life” Diplomat to Open in Tokyo

March 20, 2019

Tokyo-A museum of Chiune Sugihara (1900-1986), the Japanese diplomat who issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish people during World War II to help them escape from Nazi persecution, is set to open in the Yaesu district in Tokyo.

Items to be shown at Chiune Sugihara Sempo Museum will include one of the "visas for life," as well as manuscripts written by Sugihara. The museum will be opened to the public from Saturday, following an opening ceremony on Tuesday.

The visa in question was issued by Sugihara to the late Nathan Bluman on Aug. 9, 1940, allowing the Jewish Pole to escape to Canada by way of Japan.

Among the manuscripts to be exhibited will be a note, believed to have been written around summer 1978. It describes how Sugihara felt when he decided to issue transit visas to Jewish people in defiance of a Japanese Foreign Ministry order not to do so.

"After struggle and anguish, I finally came to conclude that the most important thing is humanitarianism," the note says.

Madoka Sugihara, 52, granddaughter of Sugihara and vice chair of nonprofit organization "Chiune Sugihara. Visas for Life," said, "We want visitors to understand the thoughts of a diplomat who saved many people by staking his life in the grueling days of the war." The NPO is one of the operators of the museum.

The original visa and manuscripts will be kept in secure storage, with replicas and copies to be showcased, along with other exhibits such as photographs and a panel listing the names of people to whom transit visas were issued by Sugihara.

The museum will be open between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sundays, and be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The entrance fee will be 500 yen for adults and 300 yen for junior high and high school students. Admission will be free for elementary school students and younger children. Jiji Press