Saipan aflame

An admixture of personae descend on Saipan and Tinian this week, some to commemorate the 60th year anniversary of the Battle of Saipan and Tinian. Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets of the Enola Gay fame keynotes the festivities this Tuesday at the American Memorial Park.

One of the lasting images that dominates historical accounts of the conquest of Pacific Islands defended by the Imperial armed forces of Japan 60 years ago is that of a flame thrower ferreting ensconced soldiers out of the cave crevices and their fox holes. As determined defenders made their stand to the last bullet, equally determined young soldiers ferociously explode ordnance in and around their locations. Blood-drenched real estate was won inch by inch from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima. In Saipan, some 3,000 Americans, 30,000 Japanese and 900 local residents perished in the invasion.

The heat of such conflagration that visited the islands of Saipan and Tinian would be transported on two mega-ordnances a year later over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those two events would become the twin towers that would indelibly remind us of humanity’s capacity to destroy itself.

Young families from Japan, Korea and China has since become regular visitors of our shores. Their members are also present in noticeable abundance this week but they will be here not to recall the conflagration of the past. They are here partly to view the radiating splendor of the island’s flame trees.

Japan has its cherry blossoms in April. Saipan has its flame trees in May, and June, and July, and August. We keep the pictures of the flame throwers to remind us that their more sophisticated cousins remain in use in such places as Afghanistan and Iraq, and in selected terrorist targets around the world. We dare not forget the lesson of history where the economies that live on the creation and marketing of such ordnance reap the consequences of their own invention. It was declared of old: those who live by the sword die by the sword.

For now, let the echoes of slaughter recede in the dim chambers of historical memory, and let the laughter of new couples and their dreams of new families resonate under the blossom of the resplendent flame trees in our yards and promenades.

Another flame burns in the hearts and minds of many these days. It is the flame born out of the understanding and experience of a new Earth, a new beginning. Loyalties and allegiances have since transcended the confines of national boundaries as our lives are continually affected and determined by decisions made in many corners of the new global village.

During this week’s celebration, on Tuesday morning, June 15, at 9:00 a.m., an ecumenical gathering, an Interfaith Memorial Service, assembles to dedicate all the lives lost during the conflagration in Saipan and Tinian 60 years ago.

To those who find themselves challenged by the vision of a new earth and guided by a mission to create a new social order less guided by the requirements of power and dominance but by the possibilities of cooperation and community, I offer the following song. The tune, intentionally chosen from the voice of a young Brown shirt in Nazi Germany depicted in the movie, Cabaret, is given a new twist by shifting the allegiance from narrow interest to that of humanity as a whole.

The Earth Belongs to All
(Tune: The Future Belongs to All)

The flowers in Death Valley are greeting the sun;
the rainbow in Tinian stands tall.
We gather together to live as one:
the earth belongs to all.

Chorus:
All of the gifts of the earth
and all decisions of history,
and all the inventions of humanness
belong to each one through me.

The pole of the bamboo is leafy and green;
the mangoes are ready to fall.
But somehow a glory awaits unseen:
the earth rejoices for all.

The cries of the innocent echoes their pain,
the tyrants still vanquish the small.
A powerful ruler lies bound in chain:
Oh, earth, we belong to all.

A dream of the future is beckoning me,
a vision has captured my soul.
The morning is coming when all will see:
Our earth belongs to all.

Oh Father, Oh Mother, Mysterious Power,
your children are gathered to call;
may this be our mission to haste the hour
when dear earth belongs to all.