Press release, 4 March 2016
During the meeting between Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, and Shinzō Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, in his residence on 2 March 2016, the head of government stressed that the visit of the Speaker of the Seimas would strengthen and increase the cooperation and partnership between the two countries.
The meeting centred on Chiune Sugihara, former Japanese consul, who resided in Lithuania during World War II and issued visas to Jews fleeing Nazi repression, thus saving their lives.
The Japanese Prime Minister emphasised that Sugihara had united the Lithuanians and Japanese, and expressed hope that the historical documents of the diplomat would be inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2017. The idea has already received the approval of Japan’s National Commission for UNESCO.
In her turn, the Speaker of the Seimas ensured that Lithuania would support that ambition. “Lithuania supports this initiative. The heroic achievement of Chiune Sugihara has to be remembered, commemorated and promoted as humanity triumph, even in the face of mortal danger. I am happy that our nations share common values,” said Loreta Graužinienė.
Furthermore, Shinzō Abe mentioned having watched the film about the life of Sugihara produced by Nippon TV. In that regard, the Speaker of the Seimas added that she particularly appreciated the decision of the film producers to present the world premiere of the film at the historical cinema theatre Romuva in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, where the Japanese consul lived and worked in 1939–1940.
“Thanks to Sugihara, more and more Japanese will learn about Lithuania,” noted the Japanese Prime Minister.
As part of the tribute to Chiune Sugihara, Mrs Graužinienė and the Lithuanian delegation visited Yaotsu, the native town of the diplomat in Gifu Prefecture, where they met with Governor Masanori Kaneko and former governor Shingo Akatsuka. The Speaker of the Seimas expressed gratitude to them for consistent efforts to foster Sugihara’s legacy and relations with Lithuania.
Later, Loreta Graužinienė visited Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall on the Hill of Humanity and the exhibition, the large part of which was devoted to Lithuania and work of Sugihara in our country. Besides, the museum displayed the Life Saving Cross, a posthumous award to Chiune Sugihara, and awards by other states, including the Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations by Israel.
Having visited the museum Mrs Graužinienė underlined that it was of utmost importance to introduce the activities of Sugihara to the young generation. Despite the most difficult circumstances, it was important to hold unto human values when helping people in mortal danger. The Speaker of the Seimas further remarked that Chiune Sugihara proved that “even one person can do a lot”. Not only the survivors were eternally grateful to their saviour for opening the gateway to a new life through Japan, but also thousands of their descendants were.
Loreta Graužinienė invited everyone to visit the Sugihara House in Kaunas (Lithuania), the Japanese consulate before World War II.
The role of Sugihara in Lithuanian–Japanese relations was once more acknowledged during the meeting between the Speaker of the Seimas and Hajime Furuta, Governor of Gifu Prefecture. Remembering the last year’s visit to Lithuania, the Governor said that the memory of Chiune Sugihara made Lithuania a dear country for the Japanese, and that efforts would be made to strengthen the ties between the two states.
In that respect, the Speaker of the Seimas observed that the name of the diplomat was memorialised both in Kaunas and Vilnius. “In memory of his feat, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of Visas for Life last year,” said Mrs Graužinienė, once again emphasising that Lithuania greatly supported the initiative by Gifu Governor and the Japanese Government to inscribe the diplomat’s documents on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
In addition, the meetings with Mr Furuta, other officials, the university president and businessmen focused on cooperation between the prefecture and Lithuania in business, tourism and science.
Loreta Graužinienė stressed that Gifu Prefecture was a new Lithuanian partner in Japan. It would be worthwhile promoting cooperation between the prefecture and Lithuania. Gifu Prefecture had an excellent basis for this: 12 universities, a strong sector of life sciences, well-developed machinery industry and agriculture. “This is a very good basis for practical cooperation. We would encourage networking between academia as well as developing business and tourism relations,” said the Speaker of the Seimas.
Rosvaldas Gorbačiovas, Senior Adviser to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6005,
mob. +370 698 42 071, e-mail: [email protected]
