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Show With Perry In Japan On a hillside near Yoioi.ti.ma, Japan, is tae final resting ttaice oi a uaumible private of Marines, wLjcse burial there helped to remndle tat lires of Christanuy in a land where they had long since been extinguished, extinguish-ed, accordtng to a release by Pose-ixaster Pose-ixaster Ray K. Bo.tine. Private Robert Willialxs was wit--the U. S. Marines who acoompanieu (-.mmQ-re Perry's iieet to Japan, w.aere an important treaty .was signed in 1854. Folleiwin the Mar-.me's Mar-.me's death aboard Si.ip, Perry insisted in-sisted taat the daad man be buriei somewnere near the fleet's anchorage, anchor-age, but the natives considered this to be a sacrilege. They idelxanded that he should1 be buried at a location near Nagasaki, restricted to the burial of foreigners But Perry objected, raxanding the Orientals tilat undisturbed resting P-iaoes f.er -tha dead were granted by all nations. Finally tne Japanese a-gretd a-gretd to forego t.eeir arbitrary rule -and to iprovidie a suitable burial plot. Fifes and i.xiaiffledi drutxis played a subdued requieimj as the dead Marine was borne by four caxxades to a selected site in the shuieiow of a hillside hill-side shrine. The Protestant Episce-pal Episce-pal service was read and the (marines (mar-ines fired three volleys over -the grave, the entire service being conducted con-ducted with) an impressive solemnity. During the cerejxony a Bulddhist priest onanted his it payers, burned incense, and perfoiixed! the rites of his faith in honor of the dead, oon-tinurng oon-tinurng his incantations long after (the Americans had departed. Barely has anv marine been so honored in either life or death. C.uistian missions had been est-alblished est-alblished in Japan centuries before perry's visit, only ,to be destroyed by lire and sword. The burial of Will-uJx.s Will-uJx.s broke through, .the Japanese settled opposition .to Christianity, a laitih WBaickD a few years later was to number many converts in toe land i the Rising Sun. |