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Museum brings back Japanese era
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Posted on Sep 30 2004
To commemorate the Japanese era in the Northern Mariana Islands, the NMI Museum will feature a new exhibit for the next three months, featuring the way of life on the islands during that time.
NMI Museum executive director Maggie S. Sablan said during an interview yesterday that the museum would feature the Japanese exhibit beginning this Monday, Oct. 4 to Dec. 31.
“We’re very excited,” Sablan said. “Its always exciting when we’re going to put up a new exhibit. It’s something new and actually, the making of it too is very exciting.”
Sablan, along with the museum’s exhibits curator, Noel B. Quitugua, disclosed that the exhibit would include a segment dedicated to Haruji Matsue, who is credited with introducing the sugar refinery industry to the NMI.
Sablan said the section also includes Matsue’s scrapbook, which was donated to the museum by his son and grandson last year.
Also among the features are photos of the various infrastructures, harvesting of sugar and the sugar mill, the trains used to transport the sugar, roads, and several other agricultural and industrial features, as well as the old Japanese hospital, which is the building the museum currently occupies.
All artifacts and several photos are from Saipan, while several photos are from Tinian.
Sablan said the presentation of the exhibit would coincide with a Japanese festival scheduled in October.
She encouraged everyone, particularly students, to take a tour of the exhibit once it opens. “It’s history of their [students] place, and the nice thing about it is that when they grow up and go off to school, they’ll have something to talk about…they have a big history,” she said.
Sablan said she has received positive feedback from many kids who have toured previous exhibits.
“They get very excited and are in awe, saying ‘we use to be like this?’ so when they come in here, they’re amazed and it’s very exciting to know that we’re giving them something new to learn about,” she said.
