STORYWALK
Chiune Sugihara: Visas for Life
Until His Name Was Carved into This Hill
Hear each place’s story in English — about a minute per chapter, right where it happened. An iPhone app.
Before you walk his hometown.
Yaotsu, in Gifu Prefecture. In the summer of 1940, far from here in Kaunas, Lithuania, a Japanese man wrote out papers. The people who carried those papers traveled east on the Trans-Siberian Railway, then crossed the Sea of Japan from Vladivostok, heading for the port of Tsuruga.
The man who wrote them was Chiune Sugihara. This town's chronology records that he was born here.
Yet it took a long time for his name to be carved into a hill in this town. We will follow those long years through three places. On the bridge: what happened to him when he came home. On the Hill of Humanity: who found him. And at the memorial hall: what, exactly, he wrote.
From the old bridge to the hill.
Start at YAO Bus stop “Yaotsu Minatomachi” and walk the chapters in order.
Walk in the order of the numbers. On the day, the app guides you to each next chapter.
3 chapters
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01 ・ 1 min walk from the stationOld Yaotsu Bridge
1940–1968 — The man they said did not existUp on the hill, the story turns to the person who found him.
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02 ・ 60 min walk from the last chapterHill of Humanity Park: Visa for Life Monument
1968–2000 — Abroad, they spoke his name firstIn a building deeper in the park, what he wrote at his desk still remains.
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03 ・ 10 min walk from the last chapterChiune Sugihara Memorial Hall
1940–2000 — What remains: paper and a single line
Stand there, and you’ll hear it.
Stand in the middle of the bridge, and across the Kiso River you can see the houses of Honmachi-dori street. It is an old road, lined with long-established shops selling kuri kinton, a chestnut sweet. This town's chronology records that a diplomat was born here: Chiune Sugihara. In the summer of 1940, he was in charge of the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland, people fleeing persecution, most of them Jewish, escaped to Lithuania, which was still independent. Then Lithuania, too, was annexed by the Soviet Union. To flee east, people needed a transit visa, allowing them to land in Japan and travel on to another country.
The rest is in the app. Chapter one is free.
Time, fees and getting there
- Start
- From Meitetsu Hiromi Line Akechi Station, take the infrequent YAO Bus to the Yaotsu Minatomachi stop; the Old Yaotsu Bridge is right by the stop
- Time
- About 4.8 km on foot, about 4 km of it uphill to the park, which a bus or free shuttle can cover; about 2.5 to 3 hours including visits
- Getting there
- From Meitetsu Hiromi Line Akechi Station, take the YAO Bus to the Yaotsu Minatomachi stop. Buses are infrequent, so check the timetable. On weekends and holidays, a free sightseeing shuttle taxi is also available.
SourcesNon-fiction, based on official sources.
Yaotsu Town (official site) ／ NPO Chiune Sugihara Visas for Life ／ nippon.com ／ Daily Shincho ／ Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO)
Hear this story where it happened.
iPhone app — coming soon. Chapter one is free.