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Japanese religious group honors war victims
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Posted on Nov 13 2000
Some 160 members of the Japanese Shikou Gakuen Mission gathered here Saturday to commemorate an annual memorial service honoring Japanese war victims who perished in the battlefields of Saipan.
The service was held at the Shikou Gakuen Mission monument at Banzai Cliff attended by CNMI leaders and guests led by Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan.
The ceremony opened with the declaration of the memorial service and was followed with the chanting of hymnal songs and prayers that also called for world peace.
The event was celebrated with the dedication prayer notes, flowers, Japanese water, sake, and chorus, as well as tea ceremony.
After the service, the actual Japanese tea ceremony and the ikebana or flower arrangement followed at the Hafa Adai Beach Hotel.
The Shikou Gakuen mission, a religious organization founded on Aug. 15, 1945, over the years has fulfilled its yearly tradition of honoring its dead through a special religious journey to Saipan where their Japanese brothers and sisters died as a result of the war.
Around 300 Shikou Gakuen members usually come to the island by ship to attend the annual service. During the same time last year, some 70 mission members arrived on island to perform the service.
Over 3,300 Japanese have joined the memorial trip since the Shikou Gakuen Mission monument was built some 11 years ago.
