«We understood that neither the Japanese nor the German governments would approve of our actions. But we did it anyway.»
In April 2026, in Vilnius, on the right bank of the Neris, next to the National Art Gallery, the cherry blossoms bloomed once again. Two hundred Japanese cherry trees, planted here a quarter of a century ago in the Chiune Sugihara Park, turned the riverbank into a cloud of white and pink. The name of the Japanese diplomat inscribed on a stone at the park entrance connects the history of this small Baltic country with the history of a Jewish community that was almost entirely destroyed. And it is also the story of a man who saved thousands of desperate people, defying bureaucratic orders.
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