Kirkepiscatoid

A friend tipped me off to this documentary, and I must say, it is well worth the watch. About the best way I could describe the story of Chiune Sugihara is that he was "a Japanese Oskar Schindler." Sugihara, using his influence as a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania just prior to and during WWII, used his diplomatic influence to move thousands of Polish and Lithuanian Jews to Curacao, Dutch Guiana, and Vladivostock in the USSR. From Vladivostok, some went to the U.S. and Palestine; others went to Japan. Most ended up in Shanghai, China until the end of WWII. He managed this despite direct orders against it from the Japanese embassy.

He basically got away with it because he had such skills as a linguist and translator that the Japanse government needed his war skills too much. But eventually he and his family spent the end of the war in a Russian POW camp for eighteen months, when the Soviets invaded Romania, where Sugihara was stationed. Following the war, his diplomatic career was over when he was unceremoniously dumped by the Japanese government. He worked menial jobs to support his family (including selling light bulbs door to door) and ended his working career in the export business in Moscow, with his family living in Japan. It has only been in recent years that his accomplishments have come to light.

What caused this man to realize he and his family had to take these risks? Oddly enough, it was because an eleven year old boy, Solly Ganor, who invited him to come to their house for the first night of Hanukkah in 1939. In short, it was the "miracle of hospitality" that saved many lives.

I often think about how we might all be entertaining "angels unawares." This movie is a great reminder of that, and that saints do live among us.