A bust of the late Chiune Sugihara, on the Hill of Humanity in Yaotsu, Japan. Photo: Barney Breen-Portnoy.

Google Doodles on Monday honored the late Chiune Sugihara — a World II-era Japanese diplomat who flouted Tokyo’s orders by providing travel documents that saved thousands of European Jews from being murdered by the Nazis.

Defying orders from his supervisors, the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees, helping them escape Europe in 1940.#GoogleDoodle → https://t.co/mI3tJlch3g pic.twitter.com/y1DR6Ou939

— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) July 29, 2019

Shortly before he passed away in the mid-1980s, Sugihara was granted the “Righteous Among the Nations” title by Yad Vashem.

Sugihara’s life story and the efforts of his native Gifu Prefecture to keep his legacy alive and attract tourism were the subject of an Algemeiner feature piece in December 2017.