this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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[–] Hubi@feddit.org 72 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Context:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝, Sugihara Chiune; 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his career and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe

John Heinrich Detlef Rabe (23 November 1882 – 5 January 1950) was a de-nazified NSDAP member, diplomat and businessman best known for his efforts to stop war crimes during the Japanese Nanjing Massacre and protect Chinese civilians. The Nanking Safety Zone, which he helped to establish, sheltered approximately 250,000 Chinese people from attack by the Imperial Japanese Army. He had been sent to China as an official German representative in the European-U.S. diplomatic quarter in Nanjing, the Chinese capital. He served as senior chief of the diplomatic mission at the time of Japanese conquest.

[–] Camilo@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 week ago

How cool it is to be born in January 1st 1900

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 32 points 1 week ago

Morality is a personal thing.

There's a temptation to see your own actions in terms of "your side." That is bullshit. Your side is the people who rock with you. If your lords and masters in the government of whatever country are not rocking with you, fuck 'em.

I'm sure it makes it smoother if you're not going against "your people"'s monstrous atrocities, but my suspicion is that Chiune Sugihara and John Rabe would have gotten along fine and seen completely eye to eye, wherever they happened to be.