He wrote every visa by hand. By some accounts, he worked 18 to 20 hours a day, aiming for 200 to 300 visas a day.
Tokyo noticed. A cable arrived reminding him that refugees had to complete their entry procedures first. Sugihara wrote back admitting that he had issued visas to people who had not.
And he kept going.
By August 28, he had written more than 2,100.
But the Soviets were closing every foreign consulate in Lithuania, and his was no exception.