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Japanese volunteers set cleanup at Suicide Cliff
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Posted on Oct 25 2006
At least 10 Japanese presently residing in the CNMI will take time to clean up the Japanese Peace Memorial at Suicide Cliff in Marpi.
Pacific Eagle Enterprise’s husband-and-wife tandem of Willie and Aya Matsumoto will lead the cleanup on Friday at 1pm.
Aya said the cleanup is a voluntary endeavor from Japanese residents to help preserve the beauty of the monument and the park in Marpi.
She said the group chose to start at Suicide Cliff so that tourists visiting the site would continue to be impressed by the historic site and its spectacular view of the Philippine Sea.
The couple is also inviting community members who want to take part in this cleanup to join them. Aya said officers from the Marianas Visitors Authority would also be lending a hand this Friday.
Both Aya and Willie have been living in the CNMI for the past 20 years. She said they have fallen in love with the island and they want to retain its beauty for its people and visitors.
She said due to the decline of tourist visits to the Commonwealth, “the community should maintain the cleanliness of the island so that they will come back again.”
Aya said their project was inspired by an old Japanese man who had asked them some time ago to take care of the memorial park in Marpi.
Historian Genevieve Cabrera, who expressed her admiration for the couple and other volunteers, said the group would be focusing on cleaning up the “weak areas” in the memorial park. She said that the cleanup would help preserve the historic site, which was erected “decades ago.”
“This effort could be considered part of beautifying the CNMI and to preserve the site,” said Cabrera.
