“This friendship connects the past with the present, and the present with the future” —argued the Japanese ambassador to Poland Akio Miyajima during the ceremony ending the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the evacuation of Polish children from Siberia.

At the invitation of the Japanese ambassador, the ceremony was attended by numerous descendants of the rescued children, as well as official guests: Agata Kornhauser-Duda, the wife of the President of the Republic of Poland, Takaaki Ota, President of the Fukudenkai Social Welfare Center, which took Polish children under its wing a hundred years ago, Akie Abe, Honorary Chairwoman of the Fukudenkai Center Support Committee (the widow of the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe) and Hirobumi Niki, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives.

The representatives of our Museum, including professor Wojciech Śleszyński, Sylwia Szarejko, PhD — the author of the book entitled „Polskie Dzieci w Kraju Kwitnącej Wiśni” (“Polish Children in the Land of the Rising Sun”) and the author of the graphic design of this publication — Dorota Klimowicz-Bołtromiuk were also present at the gala.

During the ceremony, Director Śleszyński presented the mentioned book, and Szarejko, PhD, talked about the background of its creation.

We are glad that we could participate in this unusual event and we hope that the memory of the history of “Siberian Children” will continue to be cherished.

You can read more about the operation of rescuing Polish children from Siberia by the Japanese government and the Japanese Red Cross in Sylwia Szarejko’s book „Polskie Dzieci w Kraju Kwitnącej Wiśni” (“Polish Children in the Land of the Rising Sun”) published in the series “Little Sybir Stories”

————> YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK HERE