History of Saipan & Micronesia (3)

INVASION OF SAIPAN - 1944 HOLOCAUST

As previously mentioned American war strategy in the western Pacific was developed around the premise that Japan would never surrender and that the nation would fight to the last man particularly if the home islands were invaded. It was anticipated that such an invasion, if it were to occur, would result in the loss of one million American lives. 

In planning for this eventuality, air bases in the Marianas were essential in order to accommodate the new B-29 Superfortress, a U.S. bomber that was just beginning to be mass-produced in early 1944 and which had a flying range equal to the distance from Saipan, Tinian and Guam to Japan and return. The B-29's normal range was 2,850 miles at 358 m.p.h. with a 20,000 ton carrying capacity at 32,000 feet. 

The ships of the invasion force carried 40,000 different items to support the assault- everything from toilet paper to government issued coffins. A single supply ship carried enough food to feed 90,000 troops for one month. Navy tankers transported the petroleum products which permitted aircraft to consume 8 million gallons of avgas. The aircraft carriers alone burned 4 million barrels of fuel. 

Seven American battleships and 11 destroyers shelled Saipan and Tinian for 2 days before the landings and fired 15,000 16 and 5 inch shells at the islands along with 165,000 other shells of different caliber. On the second day this force was joined by 8 more battleships, 6 heavy cruisers and 5 light cruisers. The islands were ringed by American warships with their guns blazing. 

Shells rained down on the island, its villages, inhabitants and defenders gouging huge craters in the sand and coral, splitting buildings apart in an instant raining flaming boards and debris into heaps of rubble. Showers of rock and steel erupted on once quite, tree shaded streets, coconut trees were split apart, Japanese automobiles and Saipanese ox carts vanished as they were splintered into a thousand pieces. The earth trembled under the tremendous explosions of naval bombardment and simultaneous air attacks which filled the air with the choking dust of earth and the stench of cordite and death. Rails of track were twisted and bent into grotesque shapes, roads obliterated and electric poles snapped in blinding flashes of explosions. Caves provided the only shelter for the islanders against this death rain. Chalan Kanoa, Susupe and Garapan ceased to exist as communities Their destruction was total. 

The main invasion force landed along 4 miles of beach at Chalan Kanoa. Twenty eight U. S. tanks were destroyed the first day. The Japanese positioned colored flags in the lagoon to mark the range of the landing force and to register their howitzers on the landing force from locations behind Mt. Fina Susu. 

When the fighting ended, American loses on Saipan were double those suffered on Guadalcanal. Of the 71,034 U. S. troops landed on Saipan, 3,100 were killed, 13,100 wounded or missing in action. Of the 31,629 Japanese on Saipan approximately 29,500 Japanese died as a result of the fighting. Only 2,100 Japanese prisoners survived. Fighting between the Japanese and the Americans involved the use of ships, aircraft, artillery, tanks, machine guns, flame throwers, rifles, pistols, bayonets, swords, bamboo spears, clubs, stones and fists. The ratio of battle dead was 9.5 : 1 during the 24 days of fighting. Place names given the rugged Saipan terrain such as Death Valley, Purple Heart Ridge and Harakiri Gulch testify to the bitter fighting. 

One of the most lamentable events of the battle for Saipan involved the suicide of hundreds of families, many of whom jumped to their deaths from the high cliffs at the island's most northern point. This tragic event continued despite efforts by Americans and Saipanese using loudspeakers to try to convince many Japanese that surrender would be shameless and harmless. 

The last great aircraft carrier battle of the war was fought in the vicinity of the Marianas on June 19, 1944 when 15 U. S. carriers and 950 planes struck a Japanese force of 5 carriers and 550 aircraft. 

Saipan provided the United States military with its first opportunity to learn about military occupation of enemy territory with a Japanese civilian population. Civilians encountered during the period of the battle and afterward, while emergency conditions still prevailed, were placed in secure camps to keep them out of the way of the fighting. Thus assembled, the U.S. military could better meet their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Schools were established as soon as conditions permitted. 

In September, 1945 the camps housed 13,954 Japanese, 1,411 Koreans, 2,966 Chamorros and 1,025 Carolinians. Within a two square mile area near Lake Susupe life in the compound was primitive and only the bare necessities were provided. Weathered boards, tattered tents and battered tin sheets from the bombed out sugar refinery provided the only shelter from the weather. Each hut (han) accommodated from 20 to 55 people. After the fighting, families were released from Camp Susupe during the day to cultivate vegetables since food was scarce. Food production was increased from 79,469 pounds of produce in September, 1944 to 286,029 pounds in September,1945. 

After the capture of Saipan the fighting continued elsewhere in the Pacific for another 13 months. Camps on Tinian were constructed to house 50,000 U.S. troops and 1.2 million pounds of crops were produced all of which was consumed on the island. 

On August 6, 1945 an American Superfortress flying from Tinian dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima which hastened Japan's surrender. The war ended with Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945 but it was not until December 1, 1945 that the final surrender on Saipan took place when Army Captain Sakeo Oba, leading 46 of his men all of whom had continued to hold out in the mountains as guerrillas, finally surrendered his Samuri sword to Major Herman Lewis and Colonel Scott, USMC. Rota was one of the islands which had been bypassed. It was not occupied until after V-J day, (Victory Over Japan). 

About 90 percent of the civilian population on Saipan survived the war. This included Korean, Okinawans and Japanese who were repatriated to their respective homelands after the war. As recorded on December 31, 1949 the indigenous population of Saipan was 6,225. In 1937 23,658 persons had inhabited Saipan (4,145 were indigenous). The total population of the Northern Marianas at that time was 46,708. 

Tinian, once a somnolent, obscure, little-known island within the Marianas chain, has the somber distinction of being forever linked to the destruction of Hiroshima and the death of 80,000 people in the flash of an instant. Leaflets had been dropped by the Americans two days before the bomb was detonated warning the people to evacuate the city as a heavy attack from the air was imminent. Sixty percent of the city was destroyed when an uranium fission weapon with a yield equivalent to 13,000 tons of T.N.T. (equal to 650 conventional "block buster" bombs each filled with 20 tons of T.N.T.) was dropped from the American B-29, Enola Gay based at Tinian. 

For many years following the conclusion of hostilities, and extending into the decade of the 80's, Japanese returned to the Northern Marianas to collect the bones of fallen soldiers and civilians alike- many from the base of Suicide Cliff - for cremation at religious ceremonies and honorable burial. 

As an interesting footnote to history the last formal surrender of World War Two occurred in the Northern Marianas. On June 30, 1951, 18 Japanese castaways on Anatahan, all survivors of a convoy sunk on June 12, 1944, finally surrendered to Lt. Commander James B. Johnson U.S.N. five years and 8 months after the conclusion of hostilities. Japan was occupied by U. S. forces until Sept. 8,1951. 

Today, what little World War Two equipment remains after being collected and sold for scrap after the war is protected by law because of its historical value. Lying below the surface of a lagoon once congested with landing craft and ships of all type are the coral encrusted tools of war. Rifles, helmets, bullets, tanks, ships and landing craft litter the sandy lagoon floor as if in an underwater time capsule in silent testimony to one of the last battles fought in a pre-nuclear age. More than fifty years after the invasion the accidental detonation of live ordnance still results in the occasional death of an unsuspecting island inhabitant. Discoveries of unexploded bombs and shells should not, under any circumstances, be touched - but reported immediately to the authorities for removal by a special bomb disposal unit.

Continue with: History 4 (atomic bomb)