Sugihara Chiune

Sugihara Chiune was a diplomat who saved more than several thousand lives from the Nazis and U.S.S.R. during the Second World War by issuing refugees Japanese transit visas. Why was he able to continue handing out these “visas for life”? The man behind these actions was in fact an intelligence professional of rare caliber who, aware of the crisis confronting his nation early on, maintained a precarious balancing act as he traveled around war-torn Europe closely analyzing the global situation. The author, who has spent more than thirty years studying Sugihara, describes here for the first time the real person behind the diplomat and the truth behind the miraculous issue of those visas, based on his close study of documents in the voluminous archive of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of other historical sources. This nonfiction work is the tour de force of the Foreign Ministry’s preeminent “treasure hunter.”

SHIRAISHI Masaaki
Born in Tokyo in 1963, Shiraishi earned a master’s degree in history from the Graduate School of Humanities, Sophia University. He has worked for the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1989, beginning while still a graduate student. He specializes in Japanese diplomatic history and intelligence systems, with a particular focus on Sugihara Chiune, whom he has been researching for more than thirty years. His published books in Japanese include Puchāchin: Nihonjin ga ichiban suki na Roshiajin [Putyatin: Japan’s Favorite Russian] (Tokyo: Kadokawa, 2010), Rokusennin no inochi o sukue! Gaikōkan Sugihara Chiune [Save Six Thousand Lives! The Diplomat Sugihara Chiune] (Tokyo:PHP institute, 2014) and Sensō to chōhō gaikō: Sugihara Chiune tachi no jidai [War and Intelligence Diplomacy: The Times of Sugihara Chiune and His Superiors] (Tokyo: Kadokawa, 2015).

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
Biography

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥2,400 + tax
ISBN 9784866581743
210 mm x 148 mm / 212 pp. / March 2021

eBook
ISBN 9784866581866 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866581972 (PDF)

Maps / Author’s Introduction to the English Edition / Foreword: The Good Listener / 1. The Making of an Intelligence Officer / 2. The Manchurian Government Foreign Affairs Department and the Chinese Eastern Railway / 3. The Enigma of the Soviet Visa Refusal / 4. To the Shores of the Baltic / 5. The Lithuanian Intelligence Network / 6. Solving the Mystery of the Visas for Life / 7. Prague / 8. The True Value of an Outstanding Diplomat / Epilogue: Regrets of an Intelligence Officer / Afterword / Timeline / List of Notable Persons / Bibliography / Index

"With this exploration of Sugihara Chiune’s career, Shiraishi Masaaki has produced a finely detailed overview of the reasons he was able to issue his “visas for life” and save so many thousands of refugees."

Saitō Katsuhisa
Nippon.com

第二次世界大戦下、ユダヤ難民に日本のビザを発給し数千人の命を救った外交官・杉原千畝。彼の研究を30年以上続けてきた著者が、「情報のプロフェッショナル」杉原の素顔とビザ発給の真実を本書で初めて明らかにする。

白石仁章
1963（昭和38）年、東京生れ。上智大学大学院史学専攻博士課程修了。在学中の1989（平成元）年より外務省外交史料館に勤務し、現在に至る。専門は日本外交史とインテリジェンス・システム論。特に杉原千畝研究は30年にわたって追い続けてきたテーマである。ほかの著書に『プチャーチン――日本人が一番好きなロシア人』『六千人の命を救え！　外交官・杉原千畝』がある。

＊著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。