That reminds me of what the theologian Theodore Beza replied to the King of Navarre in 1562 after a congregation of Huguenots were burned alive in the barn they were meeting in: "The church is an anvil which has worn out many hammers."
Vice-Consul Chiune Sugihara, possibly an Orthodox Christian himself, risked much to defy his government and issue transit visas to refugee Jews fleeing the Nazi onslaught. Though it flew in the face of the official orders he was given, his courageous actions were bold and daring, resulting in thousands of people being saved from the extermination camps. He was proud to be the nail that sticks up. Oskar Schindler's story has been made famous with the Spielberg movie, though Sugihara and others actually saved more lives.
Would that every Japanese history include the heroic story of Sugihara with the Jewish proverb, וכל המקיים נפש אחת, מעלים עליו כאילו קיים עולם מלא (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:8 (37a). "He who saves a life, saves the world."
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