Russian woman decorated with Japanese order of the Noble Gem

On Sunday, Galina Potapova, honorary chairman of the Khabarovsk department of the Peace Foundation, was presented with the Japanese order of the Noble Gem, RIA Novosti learned on Monday from the Japanese consulate general in Khabarovsk (Russian Far East).

The Japanese consulate general explained that "Mrs. Potapova has done a lot to help former war prisoners and their relatives look for the burial places of Japanese citizens who died in Russia after World War II." Together with delegations of the ministry of health and social welfare of Japan, as well as relatives of the former POWs, Potapova has for many years been going to taiga areas in the Russian Far East looking for burial sites of Japanese POWs, helping to exhume and forward the remains to Japan.

Galina Potapova specified that "this work has been conducted on the basis of the Russian-Japanese inter-government agreement of April 18th, 1991, concerning persons who were in war prisoners' camps." According to information from the Japanese consulate general in Khabarovsk, since 1957 Japanese orders have been awarded to 18 citizens of Russia and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Galina Potapova is the 19th on that list.