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Holiday Respects

Today was a quiet day at the cemetery. There was a Honor Guard practicing and just a couple visitors, but otherwise very quiet. The Honor Guard did keep things jumping when they practiced their gun salute.

 Not very cold for Alaska standards. It was 16°f and over cast. We were getting a few snow flakes here and there.
 You can see there's been some foot traffic over the holidays. We haven't got a good snow in a few days.
 It sure has got a lot more of my fellow brother and sisters since I started doing photography here back in 2008.

 When the cemetery first started, inside the fenced area were the American, Russian and Canadian forces buried in the Allied Plot and outside the fenced area were Japanese soldiers buried in the Enemy Plot. All were lost during the battles in the Aleutian Islands. Since then the Japanese have been removed and cremated in the Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies under supervision of the Japanese Embassy.

The Japanese cenotaph was erected in memory of 235 Japanese soldiers who died in Alaska during World War II in the battle for the Aleutian Islands. Of the 235 soldiers buried at the cemetery, most died in the Battle of Attu. A new cenotaph was erected in September 2002 to replace the aging cenotaph that had been in place since May 1981.

To see some of my previous visits, click on the links below.



Comments

Diane said…
Love your post, always so interesting and well written.