Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon inaugurated a square named after Righteous Among the Nations Chiyona Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who served at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania, during World War II - and issued thousands of visas to Jews, including three hundred students of the Mir Yeshiva.
The ceremony was held in the presence of Koichi Mizushima - Japanese Ambassador to Israel, Yoshihiko Higuchi - Cultural Attaché at the Japanese Embassy in Israel, Holocaust survivors and other dignitaries.
The square is located in the Ir Ganim neighborhood, between Kolitz Street and Panama Street.
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Sugihara served as Vice Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, starting in 1939. In 1940, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. All diplomats were asked to leave the country. At that time, Jews began knocking on the doors of embassies in order to obtain visas that would allow them to leave Lithuania. These visas cost a fortune, and therefore many Jews had difficulty obtaining the only ticket to freedom.
In his role before leaving Lithuania, Sugihara worked to issue visas in violation of his superiors' orders, issuing more than 2,150 visas over a period of about a month and a half. It is estimated that these visas saved thousands of Jews who received the long-awaited document and left, via Russia, for various countries before Lithuania was occupied by Nazi Germany.
The Torah world owes a special debt of gratitude to the Japanese diplomat, because among the survivors were 300 students from the Mir Yeshiva who managed to escape from Kaunas, Lithuania, to the borders of Japan thanks to visas granted to them by the Japanese diplomat.
They established a temporary residence in Shanghai, which was under Japanese occupation. After the war, the yeshiva students moved to the United States and Israel.
Thus, the survivors of the yeshiva succeeded in establishing the well-known headquarters of Yeshiva Mir in the Beit Israel neighborhood of Jerusalem and in Brooklyn, New York. Among the survivors of Yeshiva Mir were the Gaon Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevich, the Gaon Rabbi Yechezkel Levinstein, the Gaon Rabbi Yechiel Michal Feinstein and other renowned Torah scholars who later laid the foundations for the building of the Torah world in Israel and around the world.
In 1985, Sugihara received recognition for his actions and was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel. A year later, in 1986, he died at the age of 86, leaving behind a wife and three children.
The request to commemorate Sugihara in Jerusalem was submitted by the survivors' families.
The Mayor of Jerusalem said at the ceremony: "This is the most moving ceremony I have ever attended in my life. It reminds us that we can never know the consequences of our actions in the future. Thanks to one man, Righteous Among the Nations, Chiona Sugihara, Jerusalem was able to boast the beacon of the Mir Yeshiva, where these days we are marking the tenth anniversary of the passing of the beloved Rosh Yeshiva, the Gaon Rabbi Natan Zvi Finkel, a righteous man of blessed memory.
""Sugihara did everything in his power and worked tirelessly to save Jews from the clutches of the Nazis, actions that cost him a heavy personal price. The least the city of Jerusalem can do for Sugihara is to immortalize his name as a sign of appreciation for his noble deeds.".
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