Unlikely Savior of Jews

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The judge sided with Phil and Blue Ribbon in their case against Onitsuka. Phil hired their lawyer full-time. Blue Ribbon still faced financial challenges. Blue Ribbon survived auditing issues from Nissho and creditor payments. Nissho forgave Phil’s decision to make them pay for a secret factory. The Bank of California accused Blue Ribbon of fraud. Nissho’s intervention prevented an FBI investigation. To address cash flow problems, Phil considered taking the company public. He hesitated due to potential loss of control. Blue Ribbon Sports rebranded to Nike Inc. Supply couldn’t meet demand. Nike expanded manufacturing to Taiwan, despite being cash poor. Nike dealt with Korean knock-offs by absorbing the Korean factory that counterfeited them. Competitors including Converse colluded to influence U.S. Customs. They forced a $25 million retroactive import tax on Nike. Nike fought back with an antitrust lawsuit. They settled for $9 million. Phil Knight's net worth is between $40 billion and $43 billion.

Part 72. Sam Zell.

You can find this week’s TL;DR here.

Key Lessons:

• There’s no greater love than to give up your life for your family.

• Events before you existed put you here.

• Allow others to treat you as family.

• Protect the lives of others.

• Treat others as family.

• Break unjust laws.

Now there’s a collectible version of this newsletter! Methods of Prosperity newsletter number 35 is available to collect as of October 26, 2024. If you’re so inclined you can permanently own it!

It began near dawn on a summer day in 1940, when two hundred Polish Jews crowded together. They gathered outside the Japanese consulate in Lithuania. They were there to plead for help to escape the sweeping Nazi advance through Eastern Europe. That they would choose to seek the aide of Japanese officials represents a puzzle in itself. At the time, the governments of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had shared interests. These Jews were the hated targets of the Third Reich. Why would they throw themselves at the mercy of one of Hitler’s international partners? What possible aide could they expect from Japan?

The international Jewish community provided financial resources and political goodwill to Japan. In return, Japan had been allowing displaced Jews easy access to Japanese territories. By the late 1930s, Japan held close strategic associations with Hitler’s Germany. Japanese government never revoked its policy of granting travel visas to European Jews. Leading up to WWII, most countries of the world turned away Jewish refugees. For instance, in June 1939, the German liner St. Louis carried 937 Jewish passengers. The U.S. denied them entry, forcing the ship to turn around. The Nazis murdered many of those passengers during the Holocaust.

It was odd that allies of the Nazis, Japan, provided sanctuary to Jewish refugees. Japan allowed Jews to stay in the Japanese controlled settlement of Shanghai, China. They also allowed Jewish refugees in the city of Kobe, Japan. By July 1940, when they amassed at the Japanese consulate in Lithuania, it was their last chance. The man behind the consulate door was Chiune Sugihara. By all appearances, Sugihara was an unlikely candidate to arrange for their salvation. He was Japan’s Consul General in Kaunas, Lithuania, during World War II. He was a mid-career diplomat with many years of committed and obedient service to Japan. He earned the credentials, he was the son of a government official in a Samurai family. Fluent in the Russian language, he aspired to become ambassador to Moscow. He enjoyed games, music, and parties. He was a comfortable, pleasure seeking, lifelong diplomat. On the surface, there was little to suggest that Sugahara would risk his career. He would risk his reputation, status, and future on rescuing these Jews. They showed up at 5:15 AM and woke him up.

Upon speaking with the crowd outside of his gate that morning, he acknowledged them. He knew their plight. He knew of the potential consequences for him and his family. Sugihara wired Tokyo for permission to authorize travel visas for them. Aspects of Japan’s lenient visa and settlement policies were still in place for Jews. Sugihara’s superiors at the foreign ministry had concerns. Continuation of their lenient policies would damage diplomatic relations with Hitler. As a consequence, they denied Sugihara’s request. They denied his more urgent second and third petitions. It was at that point in his life, age 40, no hint of disloyalty or disobedience, that he did what no one expected. He began writing the needed travel documents in outright defiance of his orders.

That choice shattered his career. Within a month, Japanese officials transferred Sugihara from his post as Consul General. They placed him in a lower status position outside of Lithuania. He no longer had autonomy. He was later expelled from the foreign ministry for insubordination. In dishonor after the war, he sold lightbulbs for a living. But in the weeks he had before closing down the consulate, he stayed true to his decision. He interviewed applicants from early morning to late at night. He authorized the papers required for their escape. Even after shutting down the consulate, he took up residence in a hotel and continued to write the visas. Exhausted, he persisted. Even on the platform for the train to take him away from his petitioners, and while on the train, he wrote the visas. The visas granted life to the Jews. Sugihara issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees. It allowed them to escape Nazi-occupied territories by traveling through Japan. Sugihara continued to issue these “visas for life,” saving about 6,000 Jews. In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations.

Why did Sugihara risk his own job security, forfeiting his status to save Jewish lives? There’s a lollapalooza of factors. We can’t isolate only one reason. In this case, there is one factor that stands out. His father, a tax official sent to Korea, moved his family there and operated an inn. That affected young Sugihara, as his parents had opened their living space to a variety of guests. They provided food and shelter to their guests, including baths and laundry service. Some guests were too impoverished to pay. From this perspective, we recognize one motive for Sugihara’s efforts to rescue Jews.

Sugihara explained it in an interview 45 years after these events. The nationality and religion of these European Jews didn’t matter. It only mattered that they were members with him of the human family.

The son of a Jewish couple from Poland who Sugihara helped was a man named Sam Zell. The following is his story.

To be continued…

I like you,

– Sean Allen Fenn

Methods of Prosperity newsletter is intended to share ideas and build relationships. To become a billionaire, one must first be conditioned to think like a billionaire. To that agenda, this newsletter studies remarkable people in history who demonstrated what to do (and what not to do). Your feedback is welcome. For more information about the author, please visit seanallenfenn.com/faq.

Special thanks to Robert Cialdini for the story of Chiune Sugihara. Adapted from Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion, Ch. 8.