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Presenter: Mark Halpern

Japanese author Akira Kitade came upon a photo album of Tatsuo Osako, his mentor and friend from his days working at Japan National Tourist Organization. The album was a remembrance of young Osako's job escorting refugees fleeing Nazi occupied Europe aboard a ship from Vladivostok, Russia to Tsuruga, Japan in 1940/41. Seven of these refugees provided photos to Osako while on this journey. This session tells the story of how the Japanese - in addition to Chiune Sugihara, the acting Japanese consul in Kaunas Lithuania, who saved thousands of Jews by issuing transit visas - helped stateless Jews in their epic journey of survival. Five of the seven refugees have now been identified. This session also follows the paper trail identifying and tracing those five refugees. The refugee stories begin in Bulgaria, France, Poland, Norway, and Austria and all end in the United States. Two have Seattle connections.