The family of a Japanese diplomat, Mr. Sugihara, living in Lithuania in 1940, is confronted by Jewish refugees asking for Japanese visas to escape the German Nazis. Without his country's permission, Mr. Sugihara issues thousands of visas, and even today, years after his death, Japanese and Jewish families alike honor Mr. Sugihara for his bravery. (Pearson Reading Street, 2010)

This lesson was created as part of the Basal Alignment Project, during which teachers created CCSS-aligned lessons for existing literary and information texts in basal readers. All page numbers and unit/week designations found in this lesson relate to the edition of the basal reader named above. If you are using a trade book or different edition of this title, the page/unit/week references in this lesson will not match. Consult the content referenced in the body of the lesson to determine appropriate page numbers for your text.