25893 Sugihara is an asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 (also known as a minor planetary body) discovered by William Kwong Yu Yeung

William Kwong Yu Yeung

William Kwong Yu Yeung is a Hong Kong-born, Canadian astronomer with telescopes based in the United States.He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids and also discovered the comet 172P/Yeung...

 at the Desert Beaver observatory

Observatory

An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...

. The asteroid was discovered November 19, 2000, and is named in honour of Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara

was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from...

, a Japanese diplomat who defied orders not to assist asylum-seekers fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe, and instead issued thousands of exit visas to Jews attempting to escape the Holocaust in Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

External links

• W. K. Y. Yeung's citations (Archived 2009-10-22)
• Chiune Sugihara in the Yad Vashem Memorial Museum