Yaotsu town is situated in south-eastern Gifu Prefecture, surrounded by mountains, with the Kiso river running through it's center.Like many other parts of Gifu, Yaotsu is full of rice fields, small farms, and is ringed with nature. Autumn brings spectacular fall colors, in winter snow falls, and with spring come marvelous cherry blossoms. However, the sumertime humidity is almost unbearable. Visitors come to Yaotsu to see these seasonal changes as well as to visit the unique memorial park called "The Hill of Humanity," a memorial to Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat born in Yaotsu in 1900. 

During World War II, while posted as Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara was suprised to wake up one morning in July 1940 to find a large number of people surrounding his consulate. Polish Jews who had run away from Poland had come to ask Sugihara to issue transit visas through Japan to a third country, in order to escape Nazi persecution. Because Japan was an ally of Germany, Sugihara knew that helping the Jews could cause friction so he sent a telegram to the Japanese Foreign Ministry for permission to issue the visas, buthe received no reply. After sending several more telegrams, his inquiry was answered with a refusal. 

In the face of this rejection Sugihara decided to take the matter into his own hands, and help the Jewish people regardless of the consequences to his career. Determined to act as he thought a human being should, he devoted himself to writing, by hand, a continual stream of visas for one month without rest. His work saved some 6,000 Jews from the Nazis. 

Upon his return to Japan in 1947, Sugihara was dismissed from the Foreign Ministry for issuing the visas without permission, and he and his family lived destitute and in obscurity for many years after the war. 

In 1985, Sugihara was awarded the special title of "Righteous Among Nations" by the Israeli government. He is hailed by Jewish people throughout the world as "Japan's Schindler". 

Yaotsu town built the "Hill of Humanity" park five years ago to tell the story of Chiune Sugihara and his merits to the world. The monument in the park plays music from 9AM to 8PM every hour on weekdays and every half an hour on weekends from April to November. There is a beautiful view of Yaotsu from the hill and a restaurant where visitors can have lunch while enjoying the special atmosphere in the park.