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Letters and Messages |
Remarks by Consul-General Nozomu Takaoka
at The 2015 Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award Dinner hosted by Holocaust Museum Houston
on April 30, 2015
April 30, 2015
As Consul General of Japan in Houston, and as a representative of the Japanese government, I am honored to recognize the courageous, humanitarian acts of the late Mr. Chiune Sugihara.
Mr. Sugihara’s heroic actions had a profound effect on history. Each of the 2,000 visas he wrote while risking his safety and his families’, saved 6000 lives in all that went on to live, to have a family and to spread a legacy of kindness across the world, including Mrs. Edith Hamer mentioned in the video.
“To save one life is to save the world”. Tonight we have seen that this Jewish saying is indeed true, with Mr. Sugihara’s selflessness and bravery spanning the boundaries of time and geography to touch our hearts here in Houston.
The Prime Minister of Japan, the Honorable Shinzo Abe, is currently touring the United States to further strengthen Japan-U.S. relations, the Alliance of Hope. On Monday this week he paid his respects to victims of the Holocaust by visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and recognized Mr. Sugihara by saying, “I am filled with renewed resolved to keep such tragedies and also such acts of courage and goodness firmly embedded in our minds and not allow them to fade from our memory.”
It is with that sentiment in mind, Ms. Sugihara, in fact three Ms. Sugiharas, that I can say it is my great honor and pleasure to present your father-in-law, grandfather, and great-grandfather with the 2015 Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award on behalf of Holocaust Museum Houston.