On October 25, Josai International University’s Chiba Togane Campus hosted a special lecture and tree planting ceremony in honor of Swedish businessperson Raoul Wallenberg who saved more than 100,000 Jews from the Nazi holocaust during World War II. The tree planting ceremony made Josai the first in Japan to honor Wallenberg’s 100th birthday.

Raoul Wallenberg was born in 1912 and worked as a Swedish diplomat during the war. After being transferred to Nazi occupied Hungary, Wallenberg was extremely active in helping Jews escape from the Nazis, even issuing official government protection, among other things. In 1981, he was named an honorary citizen by the United States government and has been named an honorary citizen in many other countries as well, including Canada and Israel.

Beginning with Hungarian Vice Minister of Justice Zoltán Kovács, ambassadors from Hungary, Sweden and Israel were on hand to honor the 100th year of Wallenberg’s birth with a ceremonial tree planting of Japanese white birch. The event proceeded to the Mizuta Memorial Hall where Ms. Fumiko Ishioka of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center opened up the lecture entitled, “Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Saved 10,000 People—Changing the World Through the Power of Action.” The lecture presented the achievements of Wallenberg alongside images depicting the horrors of the holocaust, commanding the attention of any student interested in international relations.