Before World War II, Japanese Consul-General Chiune Sugihara was sent to Kaunas
to open a consulate service. Kaunas was the temporary capital of Lithuania at the time
Reading
Refugees in Recent Years
J次の英文は第2次世界大戦当時、ナチスに迫害されていた多くのユタヤ人を救った杉原干動。
ついて書かれたものです。英文を読んで、問いに答えなさい。
For
Chiune Sugihara
u入 boobi
30 signi
follim . Ba
wrot
be o
chos.
and was strategically situated between Germany and the Soviet Union. After Hitler.。
invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, a wave of Jewish refugees living in Poland
streamed into Lithuania. They escaped from Poland without possessions or money.
By 1940, most of Western Europe had been conquered by the Nazis. Most free
countries barred the immigration of Jewish refugees from Poland or anywhere in Nazi-
occupied Europe. Germany and Soviets were approaching Lithuania rapidly. In July
1940, the Soviet authorities instructed all foreign embassies
day
to g
35
Lith
the
Ko
all left immediately, but Sugihara managed to obtain permission to extend his
Kaunas. Almost
a
40 the
STTOS
stay.
in
0quion as taqe
On a summer morning in late July 1940, Consul Sugihara and his family awakened to
a crowd of Polish-Jewish refugees gathered outside the consulate. Desperate to flee the
q ynem
CH
approaching Nazis and Soviets, the refugees knew that their only path lay to the east. If
Consul Sugihara
them Japanese transit visas, they could race to possible
re
freedom. Sugihara was moved by their plight, but he did not have the authority to issue
hundreds of visas without permission from the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo. Sugihara
wired his government three times for permission to issue visas to the Jewish refugees.
Three times he was denied.
45
u
d
1
MOLIG- KOinE
After repeatedly receiving negative responses from Tokyo, the Consul had a dificult
decision to make. He was a man who was brought up in the strict and traditional :
discipline of the Japanese. He was a career diplomat, who suddenly had to make a very
difficult choice. On the one hand, he was bound by the traditional obedience he
c all his life. On the other hand, he thought that he had to help those who
were in need. He knew that if he defied the orders of his superiors, he might be fired
and disgraced, and would probably never work for the Japanese government again. This #
would result in extreme financial hardship for his family in the future. Sugihara even
feared for the lives of himself, his wife and children, but in the end he just followed his
conscience. The visas would be signed.
72
