{"id":302993,"date":"2019-07-08T06:06:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T20:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=302993"},"modified":"2019-07-08T06:06:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T20:06:51","slug":"group-marks-memorials-4th-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/group-marks-memorials-4th-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Group marks memorial\u2019s 4th year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Lt. Gov. Arnold Palacios and Saipan Mayor David Apatang deliver incenses to the altar, as Bishop Ryan Jimenez, rightmost, awaits his turn during last Saturday\u2019s memorial service at the Aqua Resort Club parking area. (MARC A. VENUS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kuentai-USA, in collaboration with CNMI officials, hosted the fourth annual memorial blessing at the Aqua Resort Club parking area last Saturday to honor the burial sites of Japanese and American soldiers who were killed during the Battle of Saipan.<\/p>\n

Among those in attendance were Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, Bishop Ryan Jimenez, and Japanese Consul Ono Kazuhiko.<\/p>\n

Apatang believes that the future generations of the CNMI must be entrusted to understand the meaning of life and to respect differences. \u201cWe must continue to promote peace among future generations,\u201d Apatang said.<\/p>\n

Ono, who has just been assigned to the CNMI, learned about the Battles of Saipan and Tinian, and he was curious about the presence of many accomplished officers on Saipan. He was also pleased to hear the compliments of CNMI officials about their respect of the Japanese tradition and prayers for peace for both the CNMI and Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that this memorial service will continue for many years to come,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Jimenez recognizes that differences in faith does not hinder one\u2019s respect for the dead. \u201cOne thing that binds us together is our respect for the dead,\u201d Jimenez said.<\/p>\n

The blessing was hosted by a combination of Shinto and Buddhist monks. In total, there were five Shinto priests and three Buddhist monks.<\/p>\n

The ceremony held the two different religions\u2019 form of blessing the dead, while also incorporating the audience to participate in the rituals and prayers; they invited the audience to offer the incenses for the dead.<\/p>\n

Kuentai-USA is a non-profit organization created by Kuentai-Japan, a group that locates the remains of past Japanese soldiers. When the group locates the remains of fallen U.S. soldiers, they deliver the remains back to the U.S. Their mission is \u201cto repatriate as many, and as quickly as possible before it gets too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group reports that a total of 4,110 American troops were killed during the Battle of Saipan, with 510 being considered as \u201cmissing in action\u201d and 71 being considered \u201cunknown,\u201d meaning the remains have no means of identification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuentai-USA, in collaboration with CNMI officials, hosted the fourth annual memorial blessing at the Aqua…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":302994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302993","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}