{"id":221919,"date":"2016-03-01T06:06:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=221919"},"modified":"2016-03-01T06:06:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:06:03","slug":"kuentai-partners-with-bsi-to-bring-wwii-fallen-soldiers-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/kuentai-partners-with-bsi-to-bring-wwii-fallen-soldiers-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuentai partners with BSI to bring WWII fallen soldiers home"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kuentai-USA<\/a>
Kuentai-USA chair Usan Kurata holds the dog tag of World War II American soldier Thomas Davis that the organization found on Saipan. They will soon deliver the dog tag to his family in Ohio. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A non-profit organization whose mission is to bring the remains of fallen soldiers home has partnered with the biggest developer on island.<\/p>\n

Kuentai-USA and Best Sunshine International, Ltd. has established their partnership last week to work on some of BSI\u2019s properties in the northern part of the island to collect World War II remains. <\/p>\n

In an interview with Kuentai chair Usan Kurata and secretary general Yukari Akatsuka, they said that it is a \u201cgreat idea\u201d and a \u201cgreat opportunity\u201d for them to partner with the said developer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a rich experience. We have been here for six years already. We opened up many burial sites so we can train then for the educational purpose they have to know the culture and history of the island,\u201d Yukari said.<\/p>\n

Yukari said that since BSI has some properties up north, they will most likely come across the remains as well.<\/p>\n

They added that with the partnership, they will be able to work alongside BSI\u2019s corporate social responsibility volunteers to help them with the tremendous work before them.<\/p>\n

Kuentai said they are also thinking of bringing in volunteers from Japan as a form of cultural exchange to help with their dig. <\/p>\n

Just recently, Kuentai was able to find a dog tag belonging to a World War II American soldier named Thomas Davis. His family was traced and this item belonging to him will soon be returned home. <\/p>\n

Dog tags, unlike other soldiers\u2019 items, are considered a rare find in digging.<\/p>\n

To date, Kuentai has found 800 Japanese and eight U.S. World War II soldiers from the Achugao area<\/p>\n

However, there are 28,000 more missing Japanese and 400 Americans soldiers missing and buried somewhere around the islands.<\/p>\n

They have also identified a number of mass burial graves as well as individual graves on the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s still a big number and not so easy,\u201d Usan said.<\/p>\n

Last November, Kuentai was able to dig several remains from a burial site but had to stop with the project and rebury them. <\/p>\n

Aside from Saipan, Kuentai also has projects in Tinian, Guam, and the Philippines. <\/p>\n

For BSI chief services officer Tao Xing, the project is very \u201chonorable\u201d and that Kuentai\u2019s work has been \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very noble cause. The concept is to bring home the soldiers for the U.S and Japan,\u201d Xing said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very much interested and will be very much supporting their cause,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A non-profit organization whose mission is to bring the remains of fallen soldiers home has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":221965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1311,170,7763,364],"class_list":["post-221919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-bsi","tag-japan","tag-usan-kurata","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}