Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum

In the 1920s and again in 1940–41 Tsuruga received two groups almost nobody else would take: Polish orphans evacuated from Siberia, and Jewish refugees carrying transit visas written against orders by the Japanese consul in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara. This museum is their landing point. It is small and it is the reason the town matters.

Tsuruga is the one Japanese port that Polish orphans and Jewish refugees passed through. The museum's own English text says it was "the only port where Polish orphans in the 1920s" disembarked, and that Jewish refugees with "visas for life" landed in the 1940s. It stands on the Kanegasaki waterfront, so the place you are standing is the place the story took place.

Inside, a theatre film explains why the refugees and orphans came to Tsuruga, a gallery covers the port's history from ancient to modern times, and two rooms tell the main stories. The orphans' room has a diary left by a child and a large ceramic tile relief made for the 100th anniversary of their arrival. The refugees' room has a replica of a Sugihara visa and a digitised list of his transit visas, and a pocket watch that survives from the valuables refugees sold for food at a clock shop near the station. The museum says most of those items were lost in the 1945 air raid. Residents' recorded testimony closes the visit.

The catch is that it is a quiet, reading-heavy museum, and photography is banned in most areas. Skip it if you want a scenic hour; take it if you want to understand why this small port is on the cruise map. It is also closed on Wednesdays, so check your call date against the museum's closure calendar.