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Over 20 make pilgrimage to CNMI
Over 20 Japanese men and women made the 13th annual Nenpou Shinkyu pilgrimage to the CNMI to remember all of those who fought and died on the islands during World War II.
Members of the Nenpou Shinkyou Buddhist Denomination conducted their 13th annual memorial ceremony last Thursday at the Last Command Post in Marpi.
The ceremony is intended to honor Japanese soldiers and civilians who lost their lives during World War II and to pray for everlasting peace.
During the ceremony, Nenpou Shinkyou priests and leaders prayed for eternal peace for the fallen Japanese of World War II and for war to never repeat itself.
The ceremony was first established by the Nenpou Shinkyou Buddhist Denomination in 2007 and has been an annual event since then.
Government officials came to show their respects and to honor the bond between the Commonwealth and the Japanese community.
Among the government officials present at the memorial ceremony last Thursday were then-acting governor Arnold I. Palacios, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang and Reps. Luis Castro (R-Saipan) and Joseph Lee Pan Guerrero (R-Saipan).
Newly appointed Japanese consul to the CNMI Kazuhiko Ono was also in attendance and was asked to offer brief remarks.
According to Ono, it was his first Nenpou Shinkyu memorial service and he was honored.
“I am honored to be here today, to pray and honor the souls of those who lost their lives [on] Saipan during the war. Time flies and memory of the war fades. However, we should never forget that, while we have survived or never experienced the war, we did not build this peace alone, but that it is founded on the sacrifices made by the many people who lost their lives in the war,” he said.
The pilgrimage this year took place at both Banzai Cliff and at the Japanese Peace Memorial.
