He was raised in Gifu on the islands of Japan He was sent off to Manchuria, that's how this tale began For his next assignment in the diplomatic corps Was far-off Lithuania and the European war My grandfather was from Krakow – the Nazis came, he fled He took his family to Vilnius so they might not end up dead But the Panzers were advancing and he knew they had to go But he had to have a visa and all the embassies said no
There was only one final possibility The last consulate left open, the Third Reich's Asian ally There in Lithuania there was no time to lose They came asking for a visa, thousands of Polish Jews The diplomat called Tokyo, “can I grant them this reprieve?” Three times he got his answer, “tell them all to leave” He looked into their eyes, talked to his family He and his wife decided we must set these people free
Although I never met him, when all is said and done I am Sugihara's son
Disobeying orders that they knew to be wrong Sempo and Yukiko started writing all day long A month's worth of visas in every twenty-hour day Sempo and Yukiko could turn no refugee away Word came from the empire, it's time to turn it in You're closing down your consulate and moving to Berlin They knew they did the right thing, of this they had no doubt They threw visas through the window as their train pulled out
My grandfather crossed Siberia for five times the normal cost Fearing for the future with every minute lost He got the ferry to Kobe then to Occupied Shanghai There he spent the war years while back home his people died Sugihara-san did not seek any praise from anyone When he died the paper said his neighbors knew not what he'd done But there are forty thousand people living lives today Without Sempo Sugihara I would not be here now to sayTeksty umieszczone na naszej stronie są własnością wytwórni, wykonawców, osób mających do nich prawa.
