Japanese Emperor Akihito on Saturday praised the courage with which the Lithuanian people have overcome occupation and other hardships as he visited the former Soviet republic on the penultimate stop of a European tour.
"We go back in our memories to the hardships of World War II and later history which was full of trials, and are deeply impressed by the courage and dignity with which your people met all the troubles," Akihito said in a speech at a luncheon in his honour at the presidential palace.
He also stressed that restoration of independence of the three Baltic states in 1991 was "an exclusive event that marked the great flow of the history". Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko were in Vilnius on the fourth leg of a visit to Europe which has taken members of the Japanese royal family into former Soviet territory for the first time ever. The European tour of the Japanese imperial couple began Monday in Sweden, before moving on to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The visits to the three Baltic states, which were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union at the close of World War II, mark the first time members of the Japanese royal family have set foot on former Soviet territory.
Because of a territorial dispute, Japan has never signed a peace treaty officially ending World War II with the Soviet Union or Russia. After being welcomed earlier Saturday at Vilnius international airport by Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, Akihito, wearing a dark blue suit, and his wife, dressed in a cream-coloured outfit, were given a red carpet welcome at the presidential palace in the old town of Vilnius.