Defying Expectations: Chiune Sugihara
AGE: Secondary |
THEME: Defying Expectations: Chiune Sugihara |
PREPARATION: |
| This collective worship could also be presented as two worships, one based on the poem and exploring ideas about conforming, embarrassment and being yourself, leading on to the one about Chiune Sugihara. The second section could then be introduced by a more detailed reference to Samurai warriors. Further information about Chiune Sugihara, including photographs, can be found on several websites. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html is very thorough. See also remember.org/imagine/sugihara.html for supplementary information and links. Prepare a reader for the poem 'Warning' by Jenny Joseph. This can be found in many anthologies and was originally published in New Poems, 1963. |
DEVELOPMENT: |
| LEADER: How easily can you be made to feel embarrassed? Listen to this poem. You might well have heard it before - if you have, what do you think about it now? READER: 'Warning' by Jenny Joseph. LEADER: This is a popular poem in Primary schools. Little kids like the idea of running about like a maniac, being naughty. Even in Primary school there is terrible pressure to conform and succeed. The idea of escaping from that restraint, even for a moment, is really appealing. But how do you feel about it? At Secondary school you not only have to conform and succeed, but there is tremendous fear of being embarrassed in front of your friends. Can you really imagine wearing absolutely stupid clothes - and not caring in the slightest what your friends think? Is it a co-incidence that teenagers, more than any other group, spend time in front of the mirror checking that they've got the right look? About 60 years ago there was another society characterized by the drive to succeed and the fear of embarrassment. Japanese society. The person we are thinking about today, Chiune Sugihara, was very much a product of that culture. A descendant of Samurai warriors, he was a civil servant in the Foreign Ministry - a place where, if you wanted to succeed, it was absolutely essential to smile and please your superiors. In March 1939 his conformity paid off and he was appointed Japanese consul in Lithuania. It should have been the first step in a brilliant career. Unfortunately, very soon afterwards, Hitler invaded Poland from the west and Stalin invaded from the east. Tens of thousands of Polish Jews fled into Lithuania - and found themselves trapped. No other countries would allow them to enter. One of the few places on earth where there was a possibility of escape was, absurdly, a couple of islands in the Dutch West Indies, where no visa was required. The Dutch consul granted visas - but the only way to get there was by fleeing east, via Japan. What was the Japanese consul to do? Three times he telegraphed Tokyo for permission. This was the reply: [READER:] CONCERNING TRANSIT VISAS REQUESTED PREVIOUSLY STOP ADVISE ABSOLUTELY NOT TO BE ISSUED ANY TRAVELLER NOT HOLDING FIRM END VISA WITH GUARANTEED DEPARTURE EX JAPAN STOP NO EXCEPTIONS STOP NO FURTHER INQUIRIES EXPECTED STOP (SIGNED) K TANAKA FOREIGN MINISTRY TOKYO Knowing that not to conform would be the end of his career, Chiune Sugihara decided to ignore orders. For 29 days in July and August he, along with his wife, spent every day writing out visas by hand. Crowds of people besieged the embassy hoping for one of these precious pieces of paper. The couple managed about three hundred per day - the equivalent of a normal month's work. As the bombs fell on Lithuania and the family was forced to flee, Mr Sugihara continued to hand out freshly written visas from the train window. He even handed over the embassy stamp so that those left behind could forge visas. It is thought that about 40,000 people survived because of Chiune Sugihara's visas. But what happened to him? With a reputation for disobedience he was, in 1945, summarily dismissed from the Japanese Diplomatic Service. It was a terrible disgrace and, shamed in such a public way, he felt compelled to change his name. Gradually his story was forgotten. |
REFLECTION AND BIBLE READING: |
| Let's think for a moment about all the pressures that are on us to conform to other people's expectations. Our parents and teachers want us to do well at school. Our friends want us to fit in with them. They want us to make the best of our life; but there are times when it may be right to behave to other standards, standards that are not set by either group. Chiune Sugihara thought that the most important thing was to obey God - not the government. Jesus had to face similar conflicts. He was even rejected by his own family - they thought he was mad not to conform to ordinary standards and to live a quiet life at home. (Read Mark 3:20-21, 31-34 NIV) In a few moments of quiet, let's pray for the courage and insight to know what we ought to do, and to do it, even if it means going against conventional expectations. |
MUSIC: |
| Listen to some Japanese drumming. The Rolling Thunder Taiko Resource page www.taiko.com has links to lots of free drumming downloads. Alternatively, relevant CDs can be found in most libraries. |