World War II
The recent history of the Northern Marianas and its relationship with the
United States is inextricably entwined with the events surrounding World War Two.
The following historical information is provided to place the period, the
islands and the events leading up to the war in perspective.
JAPAN AS A PACIFIC POWER
Ninety years before the invasion of Saipan on March
31, 1854 Commodore Matthew C. Perry, United States Navy, sailed into Edo
(Tokyo) Bay and subsequently negotiated the Treaty Of Kanagawa which would
open Japan to commerce with the West. Prior to 1854 Japan had successfully
been kept closed to the world. By 1868 the Japanese of the Meiji era were
groping their way out of the Shogun period toward imperialism.
Sixteen-year old Emperor Mutsuhito abolished the feudal system, restored
the Meiji dynasty and began the process of westernization.
In 1904 Japan launched a surprise attack on
Admiral Zinovi Rozhoestuenski' s Russian Fleet at Ryojunko (Port Arthur),
China after they were unsuccessful in persuading Czarist Russia to leave
China. They destroyed Russia's Baltic Fleet in the Tsushima Strait. The
subsequent treaty signed between Japan and Russia made the country a world
naval power and contributed to its future belligerent adventures, first
against China and later the United States and its allies. Thus, forty
years after Commodore Perry "opened" Japan to the West, the
island kingdom was militarily and industrially strong enough to defeat
China and take over Formosa.
Ten years later Japan defeated Russia and annexed
Korea. The seeds of World War Two which were long in germinating were
planted in the mid 19th century. In hindsight, the reasons for the war
were largely economic. The seizure or protection of spheres of influence,
the maintenance of territorial integrity, the acquisition of raw materials
as well as Asian markets for the commercial opportunities they presented
were all reasons which would eventually account for so much loss of life
and national treasure.
Western nations, notably Great Britain, France,
Germany and the United States, had for more than one hundred years prior
to the outbreak of hostilities exhibited great interest in the commercial
opportunities in China and other parts of Asia. These opportunities had
attracted Western investment for the exploitation of raw materials for the
manufacture of products not only for domestic consumption but for export
of finished goods back to the Orient. These opportunities were eyed
covetously by Japan through what was to become known as the Greater
Southeast Asia Co- Prosperity Sphere.
The small islands of Micronesia, and the Marianas
in particular, offered none of these opportunities. The population of the
islands was too small to provide interesting markets and the people had
only limited financial resources for the purchase of imported goods. They
did , however, have one important advantage that was of interest to many
developed nations and which had been bestowed upon them by virtue of
geography. It was then - as it is still today - the location of the
islands in the vast Pacific that was of interest to both the West and
Japan. They sit astride the great circle sailing routes connecting the
Western and Eastern Hemispheres.
In the early days they offered convenient
locations for sailing vessels in need of water and provisions of fresh
fruit, vegetables and meat. Later, as in the case of Guam, they became
important coaling stations for steam-powered vessels. Germany had formally
taken over the islands from Spain in November, 1899 after purchasing them
for the equivalent of $4.5 million. When World War One erupted in Europe
in 1914 the Japanese moved into the islands and forced the Germans out
without a struggle.When the Peace Treaty was signed at Versailles, France
in 1919 Germany was stripped of its Pacific colonies by the Allied Powers
of which Japan was a member. The islands were formally mandated to Japan
by the newly formed League Of Nations. The United States had been
influential in establishing the League which gave Japan a mandate over the
islands as their administrator.
When the World War One Peace Conference met at
Versailles, the United States was faced with the fact that Japan had
virtually annexed the islands and American efforts were powerless to
effect any significant change in this fait accompli. The League confirmed
Japan in 1920 in her possession of the islands as a mandate. The United
States Senate refused to ratify America's membership in the League but in
1922 the United States accepted the arrangement with Japan by the Ishii -
Lansing Agreement. Japan remained a member of the League Of Nations until
1935 at which time the country withdrew from the organization and kept the
mandated islands "as an integral part of the Japanese Empire".
JAPANESE STRATEGY
On July 7, 1937 at almost the same time as
Amelia Earhart should have completed her flight around the world, the
First Japanese Division stationed in north China attacked the city of
Wanping, thus launching Japan's war with China. Five months later, on
December 12th, the city of Nanking fell. On the same day the U. S. gunboat
Panay and three U. S. oil tankers were sunk by Japanese bombers on the
Yangtze River in China. Emperor Hirohito was 124th in a succession
uninterrupted since the sixth century when, in the autumn of the 2,600 th
year (1940) of the founding of the Japanese Empire, Kinoaki Matsuo
published a book on how Japan planned to win a war with the United States.
The war would not formally begin for another
thirteen months. The Three Power Alliance And The United States Japanese
War , written by this intelligence officer when serving as liaison between
the Japanese Foreign Office and the Admiralty, openly discussed the
impending hostilities. He wrote, "... the United States will be
obliged to exercise prudence and self- restraint toward Japan at least
until 1945". "
As soon as the great armament expansion is
completed, the United States will probably avail herself of the
opportunity to declare war upon Japan... then the chances of American
victory will be far greater than Japan's". He stated, " Japan is
naturally blessed by double defensive walls linked inside and outside by a
chain of islands. The inside link consists of the Pescadores Islands,
Formosa, all islands to the west and south, the Ogasawara Islands (Bonin),
and the Chishima Islands, all of which have already been strongly armed
for defense". "The outside link ( the Japanese Mandated Islands)
extends many thousands of nautical miles embracing the Marshalls,
Carolines, Marianas and Pelew (sic) islands, which are scattered like
stars across the routes of the United States Navy either perpendicularly
or horizontally. The total number of these islands is more than one
thousand. It will be impossible for the United States fleet to reach its
destination...". Mr. Matsuo continued, "
The tragedy which will ensue as a result of the
failure of the United States fleet in its attempt to cross the Pacific can
be imagined by recalling the end of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Sea of
Japan". In the years prior to December 7, 1941 Japan constructed an
ocean fortress behind a wall of secrecy in violation of its diplomatic
agreement with the League. The mandated islands, including the Northern
Marianas, were forbidden territory to U.S. ships and American naval
authorities were becoming increasingly apprehensive over Japan's
rearmament and the growing belligerency of its military, first overtly
observed in the Panay incident.
AMERICAN STRATEGY
When Japan invaded China to protect its interests
the United States waited until the summer of 1941 to retaliate with a
trade embargo to cut the country's oil supply. This was done after
negotiations had failed to halt Japan's aggression in China. It was the
final act which led the Japanese to decide to prepare for war against the
United States and was Kaisen Zen-ya - "the eve of war". Their
objective was to sink the United States Pacific Fleet so it would not
interfere with Japan's conquest of the East Indies and the Philippines for
the area's supplies of oil and other strategic resources. At that time the
Philippine Islands was U. S. territory.
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese launched an air
strike at Shinjuwa (Pearl Harbor, Hawaii) which consisted of 6 aircraft
carriers, 183 planes, 2 battleships,2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser,9
destroyers,3 submarines and 8 oilers. The day's rising sun brought with it
the dawn of war. In response to the Shunobu's coded fleet signal of "Niitaka-Yama-Mobere"
("Climb Mount Nitaka"), Japan's "Wild Eagles" dove out
of a morning sky to reek death and destruction on a sleeping American
fleet of 145 ships... all at anchor. The U. S. territory of Guam was
attacked, partly by forces stationed on Saipan, and conquered by the
Japanese on December 10th.
The Northern Marianas would not play a major role
in the war for another two and one-half years. United States war planning
groups had developed a course of action known as the "Appreciation
And Plan For The Defeat Of Japan". This plan recognized that the most
effective way to defeat the Empire was to destroy its capacity to resist
without invading the home islands, thus avoiding the high cost in men and
materiel of an invasion. This could be accomplished by aerial bombardment
directed at Japan's industrial base. In terms of a geographic location
from which to launch such strikes the Mariana Islands fulfilled all the
requirements. However, the islands could not be secure if other islands in
the central Pacific east of the Marianas remained capable of launching
attacks on the sea lanes stretching across the Pacific from supply depots
in Hawaii.
Plans to launch an offensive against the Japanese
were initiated in 1943 at the Quadrant Conference held in Quebec.
President Roosevelt received the proposal that the Allied effort in the
Pacific should be directed first toward the Gilbert Islands, then the
Marshalls followed by Wake, the Eastern Carolines and then the Marianas.
It was at Saipan that American military planners were presented with the
problem of how to cope with a dense civilian population, the first to be
encountered in the Pacific war. The U. S. forces were to be under the
overall command of Admiral Chester Nimitz.
The American drive across the Pacific would be
two-pronged. While Nimitz fought his way across the central Pacific,
General MacArthur would advance across the southwest Pacific to the
Philippines. The islands of the central Pacific either succumbed one by
one under the shear weight of American forces or were bombed, neutralized
and bypassed. With their supply lines cut, the defenders of by-passed
islands were left to starve. After the fall of the Marshall islands, no
other island in the central Pacific would be invaded by American ground
forces until the American armada reached the waters off the Marianas and
the island of Saipan.