A ceremony was held on Tuesday, February 20, in Tokyo to present a public award – the Medal «The Value of Peace» named after Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – to Japanese politician and public figure His Excellency Yukio Hatoyama with the wording «For Outstanding Contribution to Understanding the Eternal Value of Good Neighborly Coexistence and the Noble Rapprochement of Cultures in Mutual Respect». Award number 8 was presented by the Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Culture Support Foundation (Moscow, Russia), the initiator of the project «Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Peace Initiative» Mikhail Chernov. The ceremony was also attended by former Japanese Deputy Minister of Economics Honorable Yukihisa Fujita and Yukio Hatoyama’s Office Chief Doctor Daisuke Haga.
«Both as the Prime Minister of Japan and as a public figure, you have always been guided by the Value of Peace, friendship between peoples, mutual enrichment of cultures and good neighborliness. Your personal contribution and, through you, the contribution of the entire Japanese people to the harmonization of good neighborly relations between peoples, to the well-being and peace throughout the Indo-Pacific region is truly invaluable», noted Mikhail Chernov, addressing H.E. Yukio Hatoyama. Mr. Chernov also claimed that «in spite of everything, warm and trusting relationships between the Russian and Japanese peoples, the mutual enrichment of our national cultures will remain, and the Value of Peace will become their strong foundation».
In response, His Excellency Yukio Hatoyama expressed gratitude for the appreciation of his efforts in maintaining peace and pledged to live up to the honour of having been awarded and promised to contribute to peaceful coexistence at the global level. At the end of the ceremony, in a friendly atmosphere, the participants of the events exchanged their views on the prospects for the development of Russian-Japanese relations and the situation in the international arena.
A public award – the Medal «The Value of Peace» named after Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – was established by the Jewish Culture Support Foundation with the assistance of the Presidential Grants Foundation and is awarded for peacekeeping, efforts to prevent inter-State, intercultural, interreligious and interethnic conflicts, enhancing peace and harmony. Candidates for the Medal are presented to the Award Committee for consideration by Russian and foreign non-governmental organisations.
The first such a high award was given in May 2021 during a solemn ceremony to the Hero of Russia and the Kyrgyz Republic cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov for strengthening friendship between peoples and peacemaking activities.
