Chiune Sugihara, heroic WWII Japanese diplomat, honored by Embassy of Japan in Canada online international event
Thursday, December 24, 2020
The Embassy of Japan in Canada hosted an international webinar "'Visas for Life' and the bond of humanity": Sugihara Chiune's courageous humanitarian act from December 8-12, 2020. It honored the 120th anniversary of the heroic WWII Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara's birth and the 80th anniversary of his courageous issuing of 2,139 transit visas while posted in Kaunus, Lithuania in 1940, saving the lives of 6,000 Jews.
The opening webinar ceremony was introduced by host Ambassador Yasuhisa Kawamura of the Embassy of Japan in Canada.
It was an honor to have been invited to participate alongside international Embassy dignitaries from Lithuania and Israel, the Canadian CIJA and the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem, introducing and presenting four piano works that expressed hope for peace in the world. One of the four-all from several of my recordings-was the online airing of the CD of the November 2020 release Masha's Arigato, a new solo piano work composed in honor of Sugihara and the people of Japan.
Masha's Arigato received its premiere performance during the reopening ceremony of the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum in Tusurga, Japan on November 3, 2020 by pianist Nobue Doda-on behalf of the family-the very port city to which all of the Sugihara life-saving visa recipients arrived.