Chiune Sugihara - Tumblr Posts
11 - Chiune Sugihara - Scholar You may have noticed by now, but I have a special place in my heart for people in history who do what they think is right as opposed to what is expected of them. Well, Chiune Sugihara is pretty much the grand poobah founding member of that class, and I love him to pieces. A relatively minor bureaucrat in the Japanese Empire during World War II, Mr. Sugihara was assigned to be Vice-Counsul for his country in Lithuania. When Jews came to him seeking travel visas in order to get out of Lithuania and escape the Holocaust, Chiune blatantly disregarded orders and started handing out visas to as many people as he could. By the time the Empire pulled him out of Lithuania for his gross disobedience, Mr. Sugihara was spending upwards of 20 hours *per day* writing visas, and witnesses report he was *throwing visas out of the train windows as it pulled away.* Bad. Ass. In RPGs, the Scholar is a class that revolves around planning, tactics, and learning. It tends to focus rather strongly on rules and regulations, though the Scholar’s actual role in combat tends to swing between defense and support without any real consistency. Given that Mr. Sugihara was basically manipulating the rules to defend the defenseless, it seemed an appropriate fit.
Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.
Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.