The Saipan Time Capsule

On Monday, June 14, 2004 a time capsule with messages and memorabilia for residents of the Northern Marianas and others to be opened in the year 2104 was buried at the American Memorial Park in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the 1944 invasion and liberation of Saipan and Tinian.

Positioned below ground in a water proof container within a concrete receptacle, the time capsule will remain undisturbed for the next four generations not to be opened until the 160th anniversary of the invasion. The capsule contains historical records and objects representative of current culture and the battle for Saipan and was buried in the presence of the Navajo code talkers, a group of American Indians that used their unique language as a valuable resource to communicate secretly in a tribal vernacular unknown and incomprehensible to the radio listening Japanese interceptors. While the Navajos transmitted secret military tactical information between themselves for translation into English for use by the American forces, it was felt appropriate that they be remembered on the Memorial Park grounds as messages were left behind for communication from that time to those of a future age.

When the contents of the capsule are recovered and opened for examination on that distant day hopefully, it will be re-dedicated and returned to its resting place for discovery at a still more distant future time. One can only wonder what the island and the world will be like when the contents of the capsule are again seen and studied by people of the distant future. Someone once said, “time passes” but for this capsule, “time will stay—we will pass”.

The lengthening shadows on the parks hallowed ground will remind us of the dark shadow of time on our own lives as marked by the dusk of each passing day.

Protected from the ravenous vultures of the air and sea in a casket of memories, we know life’s message that time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which we speak is already far from us.

Someone once observed: ”Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future has not yet come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, it exists and expires”.

Some 50 years before the birth of Christ, the Roman poet Horace said:

“Time will bring to light what ever is hidden; it will conceal and cover up what is now shining.” When memories wain—and trumpets fade,

Let it be said: Here—a difference was made. (William H. Stewart)