from left, vice-mayor Kazunori Nakayama, Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture; Kazuko Shiraishi, ambassador for women, human rights and humanitarian affairs and ambassador in charge of Arctic affairs, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Lithuanian ambassador Egidijus Meilūnas; chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky; Michi Sugihara, executive director, Chiune Sugihara Visas for Life Foundation; Madoka Sugihara, vice-chairwoman, Chiune Sugihara Visas For Life Foundation and Shingo Akatsuka, mayor of Yaotsu, Gifu Prefecture, pose during the Chiune Sugihara event at the Lithuanian embassy in Tokyo on November 18. Photo: Yoshiaki Miura
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky visited Tokyo, Japan in mid-November where she attended an event to honor the diplomat Chiune Sugihara at the Lithuanian embassy.
The large audience of Japanese were presented possibilities for cooperation in commemorating the Japanese diplomat who saved Jews during the Holocaust in Lithuania. They also learned about the cultural and intellectual legacy of the Litvaks, the Holocaust in Lithuania and the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The event created a stir and Jews who live and work in Japan participated. Chairwoman Kukliansky granted an interview to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and their reporter showed great interest in the history of her family, their experiences during the Holocaust and impressions of Japan.
The chairwoman also had the opportunity to visit synagogue in Tokyo and learn more about the Jewish community in Japan, whose chairman, Philip Rosenfeld, has Litvak roots. The small but very active Japanese Jewish community has about 1,000 members. Most are Jews from South Africa.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community values highly the contacts made in Japan which should help celebrate the legacy and memory of Chiune Sugihara in Lithuania and the world, including his entry to the UNESCO world heritage list, and strengthen cultural and social ties between Jews in the Diaspora.