A Time To Heal

The visit recognized the intrinsic historical links between Japan and the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas. Saipan was the site of some of the fiercest fighting between the U.S. and Japanese forces during World War II. Following Japan's defeat in Saipan and Tinian, U.S. forces were able to develop air bases on both islands that allowed B-29 bombers to pound Japan. Tinian-based B-29s dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The imperial couple visited Saipan to pray for the souls of some 55,000 Japanese who died there during the 1944 invasion. Some 12,000 of the causalities were civilians, according to records from the Japanese government. Nearly 3,500 U.S. soldiers also died, including 900 residents of Saipan in the battle that ended in July 1944.

Dela Cruz and Castro, both 74, sang Japanese songs when the emperor and empress visited the Man Amko Center-a center for aged people-on June 28. Dela Cruz belted out a song taught to him by a Japanese soldier, which honors a person on his or her death anniversary. Castro sang a "cheering" song for her Tanapag baseball team, which included local and Japanese players before the war.

The Imperial Couple chatting with senior citizens during their visit to the Man Amko Center. Many of them were born during the Japanese times and remembered Emperor Hirohito, the current emperor's father. Photos: Frank S. Rosario

"The emperor asked me to write the lyrics and notes of the song and have someone send it to him in Japan," Castro told Pacific Magazine.

Castro was 13 years old when the war came to Saipan. An avid baseball fan, she learned the Japanese cheering song they sang at every game her Tanapag team played. The emperor told her he was moved by that song while the empress gave her a kiss and thanked her.

During the 1944 battle, Castro and family members hid in a small cave in Tanapag for three days. Then a shell fired from U.S. Navy ships anchored outside Tanapag village landed nearby, destroying the cave and nearly burying them alive. They managed to escape and find protection in another cave. But three of her relatives were killed by a hand grenade thrown by a Japanese solider.

Dela Cruz says he learned the song he performed for the imperial couple just three months before the war. He asked the emperor if the song he sang was appropriate for the occasion, to which Emperor Akihito said yes.

Dela Cruz has a tougher time talking about the war. "I have no hard feelings about the Japanese people," he said a day after the imperial visit. He said he was "very happy" they visited Saipan and that he got to meet the son of former Emperor Hirohito, whom he heard about during the Japanese administration of the Northern Marianas.

Another Saipan senior, 73-year-old Alejandra I. Blas, led a group of six Man Amko women in a special dance for the imperial couple. "The emperor told me he was impressed with our performance. He then asked me what I thought of their trip to Saipan. I told him I was very happy to see them in person before I die," Blas says.

Blas lost all five of her brothers and sisters during the war. She and her family members hid in a cave in upper Garapan. One aunt, Maria, who urged them to go ahead and stayed in another cave, was found dead three days later, shot by Japanese soldiers. "I'm not bitter at all at the Japanese in spite of what they did to my auntie," Blas says. "I have forgiven them."

The emperor and empress began their visit early on the morning of June 28 by meeting Japanese war veterans who fought on Saipan. They also visited the Japanese war dead memorial, where they laid a wreath and bowed their heads in prayer. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko prayed at Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff, where hundreds of Japanese civilians jumped to their deaths rather than surrender, in the closing days of the war. And they paid a surprise visit to the Korean War memorial and paid tribute to Korean laborers, many of whom died after being brought to Saipan by the Japanese. The imperial couple also visited the Marianas war memorial as well as the Court of Honor, at American Memorial Park, that honors local residents and U.S. forces killed during the war.