In a solemn ceremony that drew over 200 people, including 143 members of the group, the dead were honored by offerings of prayer notes, tea and flowers. The group also offered Japanese water and sake after the ceremony.
Gordon Marciano of Pacific Development Inc., the company that helps coordinate the annual activities, said almost the same Shikogakuen mission group members come every year.
“This is the 20th anniversary of the monuments and they have kept on with the religious tradition,” Marciano said.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, in his message, thanked the Shikogakuen Mission group for its annual tradition of honoring the dead and praying for peace in the sacred grounds of Marpi where many lives were lost during the war.
“It gives me great comfort to know that despite 64 years since those terrible days of invasion on Saipan, many of you have never forgotten,” Fitial said.
“Let us honor this peace monument as a reminder of the legacy of the third Shikogakuen president, the late Reverend Teruhiko Kawakami, and as a tribute to global peace and understanding,” he added.
Fitial noted that many armed conflicts continue to exist in the world, especially in the Middle East.
“I pray that the world may learn more of the sentiments we honor and express here,” he added.
The Shikogakuen Mission was organized in 1945.
It built the memorial monuments on Banzai Cliff on Oct. 1988 and has continued to offer prayers not only for those who perished here during World War II, but for people of all the nations who died because of wars.
