The public organization  “Sugihara Foundation – Diplomats for Life” was established in December 1999 through the efforts of Lithuanian and Belgian intellectuals and businessmen.  The organizers of the foundation sought to recruit intellectual forces and resources to immortalize the memory of the Japanese diplomat Sempo Sugihara.  His efforts to help Jews during the Second World War should remind the Lithuanian public of those very painful pages of Lithuania’s past.  The name of Sugihara, together with those of the then honorary consul of the Netherlands in Kaunas Jan Zwartendijk and the diplomats of a few other world governments, who helped European Jews who were facing death, should remind present generations of the threats hidden in human nature, as it offers examples of tolerance, good, and justice.

The Japanese Consul  Sempo (Chiyune) Sugihara lived in Kaunas 1939-1940.  Transit visas, which he issued contrary to the wishes of the Japanese government, saved the lives of thousands of Lithuanian, Polish, and even German Jews.  After he returned back to Japan in 1947, he retired from the Ministry on his own will.  However, until the time of retirement he was given rises in salary and a decoration was conferred on him.  Mr. Chiune Sugihara was also paid a retirement allowance and pension.   In 1984, that is the year before his death, Yad Vashem recognized Semo Sugihari as “Righteous Among Nations.”  The Japanese government recognized his service in 1992, and in the same year Sugihara’s city Yaotsu opened a memorial.  Japanese Prime Minister Noburu Takeshita and other official dignitaries participated in the ceremony.

 Since that time Sugihara’s fame has spread around the world.  The exhibition “Visas for Life,” which opened in the United Nations Center in New York on April 6, 2000, testified to this as the organizers staged the premier of a documentary film about Sugihara.  Sugihara’s name is becoming a symbol.

During Lithuania’s ten years of independence the Japanese diplomat has not been completely forgotten, but the organizers of “Sugihara Foundation --  Diplomats for Life,” as well as broader parts of Lithuanian society, believed that too little was done for the memory of those who assisted the victims of the Holocaust.

The organizers of the Foundation want:
--to collect funds for the establishment of a memorial-educational institution and for the maintenance of the Sugihara house (the former Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Vaizganto gtve, 30);
--to mobilize the intellectual potential of scholars, writers and artists to support studies of the assistance to victims of the  Holocaust;
--to strengthen the cultural ties between Lithuania and Japan, which  will promote the principles of tolerance and of universal humanism.

 In order to realize its goals, the Foundation had agreed to work together with Vytautas Magnus University.  The VMU Center for the Study of Assistance to Victims of Genicide has opened in the restored Sugihara house as has the VMU Center for Japanese Studies.  The potencial of the university is the greatest guarantee that the plans for the establishment of a museum will be quickly realized, and the Sugihara house will become a popular place for scholars of Lithuania, Japan, and other countries, for scholars, for tourists, for young people and children.

 The centers established in the Sugihara house by Vytautas Magnus University and “The Sugihara Foundation – Diplomats for Life” constitute the first steps on a difficult but undoubtedly meaningful path.  The fact that even in these difficult times of economic transformation in Lithuania intellectuals and business people decided to devote funds and intellectual energy to this project strengthens belief in the future of Lithuania itself.  The organizers and supporters of the Foundation believe that the work, once begun, will encourage believers in tolerance, humanism, and civil societies throught the world to unite in this common cause.