Held in collaboration with the Embassies of Japan and Lithuania in the UK, this special online event marked the 80th anniversary of the humanitarian actions of Japanese diplomat Sugihara Chiune.

While working at the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania, during World War II, Sugihara Chiune helped thousands of Jewish refugees flee Europe by issuing transit visas that would allow them to pass through Japan and seek refuge in a third country. For these actions, he was honoured in 1985 by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, with the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’.