(AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited, Sunday, a memorial to Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who saved 6,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by issuing visas from war-torn Lithuania, in defiance of Tokyo.
Abe visited the two-storey building, now a museum, that housed the consulate where Sugihara worked in the Baltic state's second city Kaunas. Abe said, "The courageous humanitarian act of Mr. Sugihara is highly appreciated by the whole world," adding that the diplomat worked with "conviction and passion", concluding, "I am really very proud of him as a Japanese." Sugihara is often called "Japan's Schindler" -- a reference to German industrialist Oskar Schindler who is credited with saving 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.