Nobuki Sugihara standing by the tree honoring his father, Righteous Among the Nations Chiune-Sempo Sugihara. In November 1939, Chiune-Sempo Sugihara, a Japanese career diplomat, was sent to Kovno (Kaunas), then the capital of Lithuania, to serve as Japan's Consul. The visas granted by Sugihara saved thousands of Jews from the hands of the Nazis, who invaded Lithuania in June 1941. He said: "I may have to disobey the government, but if I don’t, I would be disobeying God.”