Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum

The Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum stands on the waterfront of Tsuruga Port in Kanegasaki Park, preserving the stories of two extraordinary humanitarian episodes that unfolded at this small Sea of Japan port.

From the Meiji era onward, Tsuruga Port served as Japan's gateway to the Eurasian continent. A direct shipping route connected Tsuruga to Vladivostok, and the Tsuruga Port Station linked passengers to the Trans-Siberian Railway, making it the closest point between Japan and Europe. This geographic role would prove decisive during two twentieth-century crises.

In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, civil war in Siberia left hundreds of Polish children orphaned. Between 1920 and 1922, the Japanese Red Cross Society organized the rescue and transport of 763 Polish orphans, who landed at Tsuruga Port before being cared for in Japan and eventually repatriated to Poland. The citizens of Tsuruga welcomed the children with food, clothing, and warmth.

Two decades later, in 1940, Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in German-occupied Europe desperately sought escape routes. Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese vice-consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, defied instructions from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and issued transit visas, of which 2,139 are recorded on his numbered list — documents that would become known as 'Visas for Life' (命のビザ). Refugees traveled by rail across the Soviet Union on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, where they boarded ships — including the Amakusa Maru, aboard which Tatsuo Osako, a young employee of the Japan Tourist Bureau, escorted refugees on repeated crossings in 1940–41.

Between October 1940 and August 1941, Jewish refugees arrived at Tsuruga Port, the first point on Japanese soil. Estimates of the total number range from 4,500 to 6,000 individuals, including families with children. The people of Tsuruga, despite initial unfamiliarity, showed compassion: a boy offered apples, locals opened public baths to the exhausted travelers, and residents provided food and funds. After brief stays, most refugees continued to Kobe or Yokohama, eventually departing for final destinations including the United States, Palestine, Shanghai, and Curaçao.

The museum was first established in 2008 as a modest facility. On November 3, 2020, it reopened after extensive renovation with a striking facade recreating four historic buildings that once stood near Tsuruga Port: the Tsuruga Customs Baggage Inspection Office, Tsuruga Port Station (which served Eurasian railway passengers), Owada Shipping Agency, and the former Russian Volunteer Fleet Office (which operated the Tsuruga–Vladivostok route). The two-floor exhibition includes a theater presenting documentary footage, galleries on the Polish orphans and Jewish refugees with personal testimonies and replica visas, and interactive displays recording ongoing exchanges between Tsuruga citizens and descendants of the refugees.

The museum's name uses 'ムゼウム' (muzeum), the Polish word for museum, honoring the Polish connection to this humanitarian history. In Japan, Tsuruga's story complements the broader legacy of Chiune Sugihara, who was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1985.