Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler

Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Kaunas, Lithuania, issued transit visas to over 6,000 Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust — directly disobeying orders from Tokyo. He wrote visas by hand for 18-20 hours per day, his hands blistered, until the very last moment before his train departed Lithuania. When he was forced to leave, he wrote a visa while standing in the train doorway and threw it to a waiting refugee, saying 'Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore.' After the war, he was dismissed from the foreign ministry and worked as a general trading company worker for 20 years before Israel recognized him as Righteous Among the Nations.