Japanese visitors who are recovering in Hawaii from the destruction of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami remembered their deceased friends and family Saturday at their first obon service since the disaster.

Obon season typically begins in mid-July in Japan and marks a time when people honor their ancestors.

Saturday’s ceremony marked the "hatsubon" for the Japanese visitors, or the first obon after a family member dies. Dozens lit incense under a small tent and recited a sutra chant as a tiny bell rang intermittently at the Makiki Cemetery on Pensacola Street.

Misaki Suzuki, 18, of Fukushima prefecture came to Hawaii with the Aloha Initiative, a nonprofit program that organized home stays to help Japanese citizens heal from the March disaster that killed more than 15,000 people. Suzuki asked her host family to bring her to the rite so she could honor her friends who died.

The ceremony also marked the 25th annual ceremony at the Imin Yosebaka or the common grave for the first Japanese immigrants who came to Hawaii under an 1885 treaty. Of those immigrants, 289 died without family in the islands and their graves were neglected.

In 1985, 100 years after the first contract workers came to the islands, a local group received approval to put their graves into one tomb, and the Imin Yosebaka monument was unveiled a year later.

David Arakawa, president of the United Japanese Society of Hawaii, said having Japanese visitors attend the Imin Yosebaka’s 25th anniversary embodied the ties between Japan and Hawaii that are recognized annually at the cemetery.

"In the past, we always looked past," he said. "This brings things home. This reinforces that the ties still exist."

Mayumi Shinkawa, who came to Oahu with her 15-year-old daughter, Aika, through Aloha Initiative, commemorated her sister-in-law, friends and other family members who were killed by the tsunami. She said she still wishes she could go back to the day before the earthquake struck.

Gail and Delbert Nakaoka of Pacific Palisades attended at the request of Suzuki, their home-stay guest. Gail Nakaoka, who worked five years on a military base in Japan, volunteered as a host to give back to the country.

But as a host, she said, she finds herself gaining more from her guest, such as when Suzuki encouraged her and her husband to go to a bon dance Friday night. They stayed for hours.

"It’s a blessing," Nakaoka said. "She’s helping us learn, too. It’s enjoyable."