Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as ViceConsul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped 6,000 Jews to leave the country by issuing transit visas so that they could travel to Japanese territory, risking his career and his familys lives. The Jews who escaped were refugees from Germanoccupied Western Poland or Russianoccupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania. In 1985, Israel named him to the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions, the only Japanese national to be so honored.

Chiune Sugihara was bornJanuary 1900, in a rural area in Gifu Prefecture, in the Mugi district in Kouzuchitown, known today as Mino City, to a middleclass father, Yoshimi Sugihara , and Yatsu Sugihara , an uppermiddle class mother. He was the second son among five boys and one girl.

Source: Wikipedia