Widow of diplomat Chiune Sugihara remembered

TOKYO, Nov. 9 Kyodo - Relatives, friends and diplomats attended a memorial service in Tokyo on Sunday
for Yukiko Sugihara, the widow of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who helped
save thousands of Jews from Nazi persecution.
Friend and film director Steven Spielberg sent a letter of condolence, while
representatives from the Israeli and Lithuanian governments were among the
mourners who expressed sorrow at the loss of a ''brave woman.''
Sugihara died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 8 at the age of 94.
''Yukiko has continued to stand as a heroic, brave woman, a true humanitarian,
and a righteous person, whom the world should never forget,'' Spielberg said in
the letter.
He has praised Chiune as ''Japan's Schindler,'' comparing his deeds to those of
Oskar Schindler, the German factory owner in Poland who provided Jews with safe
haven during World War II and was depicted in Spielberg's film, ''Schindler's
List.''
Chiune, who was the consul general in the then Lithuanian capital of Kaunas
from 1938 to 1940, is known for rescuing 6,000 Jews from the Holocaust.
''We have lost yet another important witness who saw with their own eyes the
Holocaust tragedy and who had made a personal decision to defy indifference,''
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said in a letter.
Kaunas was sandwiched between Germany and the Soviet Union. After German leader
Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war on
Germany. Nazi armies invaded Poland and Jewish refugees streamed into
Lithuania.
Chiune repeatedly sought permission from the Japanese Foreign Ministry to issue
visas for the fleeing Jews, but his request was turned down.
He then issued them with transit visas on his own initiative. Records show that
the recipients traveled via Siberia and Japan to eventual safety in the United
States and other destinations.
The Israeli government expressed condolences to Yukiko's family through its
embassy in Tokyo, saying, ''She stood by her husband, assisted and supported
him as he followed the voice of his conscience...in the face of what later
became known as a tragedy of unprecedented magnitude.''
==Kyodo