Other events in Baltic States

About 500 people took part in a ceremony in the Lithuanian capital on Tuesday to plant Japanese "sakura" cherry blossom trees to remember Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who saved thousands of Jewish refugees from the Nazis by issuing them transit visas, Bereitbart reports referring to Associated Press.

The participants planted 50 sakura trees called "Jindo No Sakura" – the cherry blossoms of humanity in Chiune Sugihara Park in Vilnius during the ceremony, which also marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral ties between Lithuania and Japan, reports LETA/ELTA.

A group promoting international exchanges through planting cherry trees in Gifu, Sugihara's home prefecture, organized the event with the help of the city office.

Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas said the sakura planting was not only for friendship between the two countries and peace but also in remembrance of the victims of the March 11 massive earthquake and tsunami which devastated northeastern and eastern Japan.

Sugihara, as an acting consul in the then Lithuanian capital Kaunas in issued transit visas even though the Japanese Foreign Ministry told him not to do so and as a result saved 6,000 Jews from the Holocaust. He died at the age of 86 in 1986.