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Report: Japanese Imperial Couple to visit Saipan
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Posted on Feb 17 2005
The Japan Consular Office on Saipan has not received any advisory regarding Japanese Imperial Couple’s reported plan to visit Saipan in March.
“We have no information at all on this subject,” said Consul Takeo Saito. He added that he only learned about the unconfirmed trip through a report by one of Japan’s largest national newspapers, Mainichi Daily News.
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are reportedly planning to visit Saipan as part of a memorial trip for the casualties of World War II. One of the battles most crucial to American victory during the war took place on Saipan.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The Imperial Couple are also expected to visit the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau later this year, Mainichi Daily News reported.
The Mainichi Daily News said that no members of the Imperial Family have visited Saipan since the end of the war. The report said that the Imperial Couple will visit Norway and Ireland in May this year. Definite dates have not been set for visiting the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau, but the visits will probably be made by summer this year, in view of the anniversary of the end of the war on Aug. 15.
During their visit, the Emperor and the Empress plan to present flowers at memorials for the war dead and meet with local residents who are of Japanese descent, the report stated.
Reports of a similar trip circulated two years ago.
On June 26, 2003, another Japanese newspaper reported that Japan’s Foreign Ministry and the Imperial Household Agency were planning a 10-day tour of Saipan, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau from Feb. 27 to March 7, 2004.
It was to be the first postwar visit by a member of the Imperial family to this part of the world, the Daily Yomiuri had reported.
But in December 2003, Gov. Juan N. Babauta announced after a meeting with Consul Saito that the reported trip had been permanently shelved. No explanation was given regarding the cancellation.
