World War Ii Battle Photo Saipan Mariana Pacific Islands Vintage Wwii Yanks

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176278959798 WORLD WAR II BATTLE PHOTO SAIPAN MARIANA PACIFIC ISLANDS VINTAGE WWII YANKS. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO MEASURING APPROXIMATELY  8 1/4 X 11 3/4 INCHES  FROM 1944 DEPICTING  YANK FIGHTERS MOVING IN ON JAPS
The American invasion of the Japanese stronghold of Saipan in the western Pacific was an incredibly brutal battle, claiming 55,000 soldiers’ and civilians’ lives in just over three weeks in the summer of 1944. The U.S. Marines spearheaded the amphibious landing, encountering a fierce and well-prepared resistance from the Japanese troops who controlled the commanding heights looming over the beach. Artillery, snipers and automatic weapons took a deadly toll with casualties mounting under the remorseless barrage. Marines later commented on the precision of the Japanese mortars and artillery fire. A battalion caught out in the open took heavy casualties as it desperately tried to dig in and find shelter, with one of its officers recalling: “it’s hard to dig a hole when you’re lying on your stomach digging with your chin, your elbows, your knees, and your toes. … (But) it is possible to dig a hole that way, I found.” Such was a precarious beachhead established on the first day of the invasion. The amphibious landing at Saipan drew on the lessons of previous conquests in Tarawa in November 1943 and the Kwajalein and Eniwetok atolls in the Marshall Islands in early 1944. Next up was the Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan and Tinian, part of the island-hopping campaign adopted by the U.S. that struck deeper into the Japanese defenses, bypassing some well-fortified islands and cutting off their supply lines. Saipan was almost equidistant from the Marshall Islands and Japan, nearly 2,100 km, putting much of the archipelago within B-29 bomber range. Unlike the flat atolls, Saipan had topography and was a relatively large 185 sq. km. It had been administered by Japan since it was taken from Germany and Tokyo was awarded a mandate by the League of Nations in 1920. Although Japan had already withdrawn from the League in 1933 due to criticism of its invasion of Manchuria, it fortified Saipan from 1934 in violation of the mandate terms, making it a formidable target. The Saipan invasion was code-named Operation Forager and involved practice landings, and training with explosives and flamethrowers for three months. The U.S. forces confronted about 30,000 Japanese troops, double pre-invasion estimates. On June 14, some of the battleships that had been severely damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor and since repaired, commenced the softening-up phase, pounding the Japanese defenses with their heavy guns, launching shells nearly the size of a VW Beetle. It was payback time. RELATED STORIES Battle of Saipan: beginning of the end The U.S. forces faced an implacable foe ready to die rather than surrender and from the outset everyone knew this would be a bloodbath. On the second night, the Japanese counterattacked with 44 tanks, losing 24 of them to the marines’ intense fusillade. In the first four days alone, the marines suffered 5,000 casualties. On June 17, with the main Japanese fleet steaming for a showdown in the Marianas, U.S. carriers were deployed to meet them while transport and supply ships were withdrawn from their offshore support positions in Saipan. On June 19, in what military historians dub the “Great Mariana’s Turkey Shoot,” the U.S. decimated the Japanese carrier task force, sinking three carriers and shooting down 330 of the 430 planes launched and preventing relief of the Japanese forces on Saipan. The U.S. supply ships returned, but the Japanese were cut off. The U.S. confronted a tactical nightmare of ravines, caves, cliffs and hills earning nicknames such as Hell’s Pocket, Death Valley and Purple Heart Ridge. With such favorable terrain for the dug-in defenders, the U.S. resorted to unorthodox methods. One marine observed: “The flame thrower tanks were spouting their napalm jets upward into … caves. It was quite a sight!” Many civilians died in the battle. U.S. forces didn’t always distinguish between noncombatants and combatants when entering caves or hearing movement or voices in the jungle because Japanese troops used civilians as decoys to ambush American soldiers. The brutality of the conflict is also evident in video footage that captures the tragedy of Japanese civilians committing suicide by jumping off a cliff into the ocean. The suicides in Saipan drew considerable attention and praise in Japan. A correspondent from the Yomiuri praised the women who committed suicide with their children by jumping from the cliff, writing that they were, “the pride of Japanese women.” He even went so far as to call it, “The finest act of the Showa period.” Similarly, Tokyo University professor Hiraizumi Kiyoshi gushed in the Asahi Shimbun, “100 or 1,000 instants of bravery emit brilliant flashes of light, an act without equal in history.” Based on numerous wartime diaries and essays, Donald Keene highlights the conspiracy of silence about the gathering decline in Japan’s war fortunes in “So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish.” “Not until Japan had suffered severe defeats, especially at Saipan, were voices heard warning of disaster, and even then were muted, for fear of being overheard by the feared military police,” Keene wrote. In order to bolster morale, the government invented victories and enemy losses, a web of deceit that blinded the public and leaders to the real situation. After Saipan fell, the B-29s corrected this fallacy. As later happened in Okinawa, Imperial troops encouraged and instigated group suicides, warning of the horrible fate that awaited anyone captured by the invaders. The Japanese commander, Gen. Yoshitsugu Saito, reportedly said: “There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured.” Gen. Saito, wounded and knowing the battle was lost, committed suicide in his cave on July 6 after ordering a final banzai charge. The following day, 3,000 troops, including any wounded who could still limp or crawl their way to death, obeyed orders and mounted a final mass banzai charge. These troops were annihilated, but not before inflicting heavy casualties on the American forces. By July 9, mopping up operations were completed. Given the horrific carnage and atrocities endured and inflicted, there is an odd ring to the chivalry claimed in the aftermath of the battle. “Several times when we tried to feed newly captured women and children first, the male would shove them aside and demand to be first for rations,” one soldier noted. “A few raps to the chest with a rifle butt soon cured them of that habit.” Of the 71,000 U.S. troops that landed, nearly 3,000 were killed and more than 10,000 wounded. Out of the entire Japanese garrison of 30,000 troops, only 921 prisoners were captured; the rest died. The Japanese commanders, and some 5,000 others committed suicide rather than surrender. It could have been much worse. As one survey concluded, the “unfinished state of the Japanese defenses was, in fact, a critical factor in the final American victory on Saipan. The blockading success of far-ranging submarines of the U.S. Navy had drastically reduced the supplies of cement and other construction materials destined for elaborate Saipan defenses, as well as the number of troop ships carrying Japanese reinforcements to the island.” One Japanese POW observed during an interrogation that had the American assault come three months later, the island would have been impregnable and thus the casualty rate much higher. The subsequent Battle of Okinawa (April 1-June 22, 1945) nearly a year later demonstrated how deadly improved defenses could be for the invaders, defenders and civilians. There, as many as 200,000 Okinawan civilians died in the prolonged conflagration, perhaps one-third of the entire population, along with 77,000 Japanese and 14,000 American soldiers. Background  When it happened, in June and July 1944, the conquest of Saipan became the most daring—and disturbing—operation in the U.S. war against Japan to date.1 And when it was over, the United States held islands that could place B-29 bombers within range of Tokyo. Since the fall of the Marshall Islands to the Americans a few months earlier, both sides began to prepare for an American onslaught against the Marianas and Saipan in particular. The Americans decided that the best course of action was to invade Saipan first, then Tinian and Guam. They set D-day for 15 June, when Navy Sailors would deliver Marines and Soldiers to Saipan’s rugged, heavily fortified shores. The Navy’s involvement bookended the operation: naval vessels and personnel ferried Marines and Soldiers to the beaches and then, after ground combat was over, took leading positions in the administration of the occupation. Planning The logistical demands of the invasion of Saipan were dizzying. Planners had to see to it that 59 troopships and 64 LSTs could land three divisions’ worth of men and equipment on an island 2,400 miles from the base at Guadalcanal and 3,500 miles from Pearl Harbor.2 These challenges aside, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army leadership anticipated a quick campaign based on intelligence they were receiving about enemy troop levels on Saipan. American personnel in Hawaii ran their final rehearsals in May.3 Unfortunately, the Marines and Army had conducted most of their training separately. The results: conflicting tactics, conflicting expectations, and serious confusion.4 Adding to the complexity of the operation, a sizeable Japanese population lived on Saipan. The invasion would be the Americans’ first encounter of this kind, which meant that the action would entail new dangers and dreadful responsibilities. In preparation, troops received training in rudimentary Japanese.5 Preparatory Activities Air raids began in February 1944, when the Navy’s Fast Carrier Force destroyed some of the island’s docks. “That area was all in flames because the Japanese had a lot of storage tanks there,” remembers Marie Soledad Castro, then a young girl resident on Saipan and whose father was a dockworker.6 The raids continued. “One of my older brothers, Shiuichi, was killed during one of these air raids,” reports Vicky Vaughan. “We never found his body,” she continues; “like so many, he just disappeared.”7 In May, there were strikes on Marcus and Wake Islands to secure the approach to Saipan. By 8 June, a great assemblage of Navy ships arrived in the Marianas region from various points in the east, from Majuro in the Marshalls to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.8 Having hobbled Japanese air forces in the region by 11 June and, in the two days before D-Day, bombarded Saipan’s coasts, conducted risky but invaluable reconnaissance, and blown up parts of the coastal reefs, the Navy was now ready to land American personnel on the island.9 Initial Landings Before dawn on D-day, 15 June, Sailors prepared a grand breakfast for the Marines of the 2nd and 4th Divisions, and then it was time to board the amphibian tractors.10 Fifty-six of these vehicles proceeded in lines of four toward the eight beaches that had to be stormed. Thirty-thousand Japanese personnel, with their artillery, held their fire as the tractors gained the reefs and arrived in the lagoon.11 And then, with a deafening roar of Japanese artillery, it became clear that the preparatory bombardment of the shoreline defenses, which had started at dawn, had not done enough.12 These installations were hidden well in Saipan’s coastal topography, which featured high ground within range of the lagoon and the reefs, a natural obstacle to U.S. vessels and a natural focal point for Japanese fire.13 Deadly complications besieged U.S. forces all at once. The intensity of the enemy’s fire resulted in one area becoming overcrowded with Marines trying to get a footing on shore. This mass of U.S. personnel became an easy target for mortars and other projectiles.14 Nevertheless, the Marine divisions managed to get to dry ground before H-hour had passed.15 Then came another nasty surprise. The amphibian tractors were not functioning as planned. Their armor was not heavy enough to withstand the barrage from Japanese artillery, and their agility on rough ground proved lacking.16 Troops scattered in several directions as hilltop snipers tried to pick them off one by one. Of the four commanders of the 2nd Marine Division’s initial assault battalion, none escaped this phase of the battle unharmed.17 Eventually, troops and their officers reestablished order and proceeded apace. Landings continued into the night. USS Twining (DD-540), on patrol in the channel between Saipan and Tinian, afforded its Sailors a “nightmarish” perspective on the beaches. “We were close,” Lieutenant William VanDusen remembers: “Heavier ships were firing over our heads onto the beach. There were flares being dropped by Japanese planes.” Earlier that day, Twining had added to the melee when her guns “hit a large ammunition dump” on shore, as VanDusen describes it. The facility “exploded with a tremendous cloud of smoke and flame.”18 Japanese resistance proved far greater than anticipated, not least of all because the latest intelligence reports had underestimated troop levels.19 In reality, troop levels, in excess of 31,000 men, were as much as double the estimates.20 For at least a month, Japanese forces had been fortifying the island and bolstering its forces. Although U.S. submarines had managed to sink most of the transports to Saipan from Manchuria, the majority of these troops survived to supplement a full 13,000 men to the 15,000 or so already on site.21 D-day casualties were high—as many as 3,500 men in the first 24 hours of the invasion but—in spite of these, there were now 20,000 combat-ready troops on shore by sunset with more to come.22 These reinforcements could not arrive too soon, as the Japanese defense doubled down and changed tack by deploying tanks and infantry in the relative darkness of night.23 Conditions improved the following day when the next group of battleships arrived to bombard the coast anew.24 And yet, in the cool light of morning, it became clear that the Marines had not succeeded in reaching their assigned line in the sand. Fortunately for the Americans, the Japanese had not succeeded, either, in their efforts to repulse the invaders. In the Philippine Sea At this pivotal juncture in the operation, Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith, USMC (V Amphibious Force commander), Admiral Raymond Spruance (Fifth Fleet commander), and Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner (amphibious and attack forces commander) conferred nearby.25 In response to conditions on the ground, they postponed the invasion of Guam so that the Marine division tasked with conquering it could be diverted to Saipan. They also called in the operation’s reserves, the Army’s 27th Infantry Division.26 The unexpected difficulties on the beaches also prompted Admiral Spruance to bolster the naval defense by committing still more ships to the operation. To safeguard this veritable armada, he ordered that transports and supply ships clear the area by nightfall and head east out of harm’s way.27 Spruance had good reason to worry, not necessarily about the beachheads, which appeared to be secure before D-day-plus-1 had ended, but about the First Mobile Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. “The [Japanese] are coming after us,” Spruance said, and they were bringing with them 28 destroyers, 5 battleships, 11 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 9 carriers (5 fleet, 4 light) with somewhere near 500 aircraft total.28 The resulting engagement—the Battle of the Philippine Sea of 19–20 June—resulted in a decisive U.S. victory that nearly eliminated Japan’s ability to wage war in the air. Then it was back to Saipan, where U.S. military personnel still needed reinforcements and materiel.29 Indeed, just hours after the Philippine Sea engagement had ended, the Saipan landings resumed. Attack transport Sheridan (APA-51) was among the first of the ships to return. For days, Sailors had been watching the action on the shore from Sheridan’s decks. This got easier to decipher at dusk when the tracers came out, according to Lieutenant j.g. Harris Martin. The Americans’ flamethrowers, too, shone brightly amid the carnage: “We could see some of our landing craft being hit by Japanese artillery and we watched Japanese tanks as they counterattacked from the low hills”.30 Securing the Interior The center of Saipan, no more than six or so miles from the farthest coast, is mountainous, but the rest of the island consisted mostly in open farmland, almost all of it planted with sugarcane and therefore inhabited.31 Uncultivated lands—about 30 percent of the island’s surface—featured dense thickets and even denser grasslands. These, plus the fields of sugarcane, made taking and holding ground particularly slow going.32 The population of Saipan was diverse: Japanese colonists mingled and even intermarried with descendants of indigenous islanders, who themselves often descended from German and other European settlers of the pre-Japanese period.33 In 1919, having been lost by the Germans to the Japanese, Saipan fell under a League of Nations mandate to Japan, at which point the Japanese government began to encourage settlement on Saipan’s lucrative, sugarcane-laden soil. By February 1944, it was obvious even to the island’s children that something terrible was about to happen: “Just before the invasion took place,” remembers one civilian whose girlhood was spent on the island, “several trucks with Japanese soldiers [drove] up to our school, and the next day we had to take our classes under a mango tree. Later, when the bombs began to fall, classes ended for good.”34 The subsequent invasion occasioned a refugee crisis on the island and, soon, some of the most harrowing experiences any civilian would face in the course of the war. Cristino S. Dela Cruz, an islander who later joined the U.S. Marines, remembers the day, on the eve of invasion, when Japanese troops confiscated his family’s house in Garapan. Dela Cruz’s family fled inland, as did so many others, to the apparent safety of an adjacent ridge. Then the Americans landed nearby, and the Dela Cruz family’s ordeal really began. A hole in the ground provided the only cover. There the family and several others subsisted for a week on rice, coconuts, and a small supply of salted fish as the battle raged around them. Two of the Dela Cruz’s daughters died in a bombing. One of the young sons succumbed to sniper fire just as the family was surrendering to U.S. Marines, who were trying to load everyone onto a truck bound for the relative safety of an American lines.35 Still less fortunate families did not find a cave or a hole in which to hide. As survivor Manuel T. Sablan explains, “We had no shovels, no picks, just a machete, so we cut some wood and used that as picks.”36 Vicky Vaughan and her family did not even get so far as that. They became trapped under their own house until Japanese soldiers, in search of a defensible position, pushed them out into the open. With the battle underway, Vicky watched the grisly deaths of her family members before herself falling victim to the American onslaught: “I felt something hot on my back. They were using flamethrowers, and my back had been burned. I screamed hysterically.”37 To many civilian families, neither surrender nor survival were available. To surrender, a person would have to run into the crossfire, as Vicky’s family discovered. And to do so would expose one to the real danger of murder at the hands of Japanese forces, who forbade surrender on pain of death. Escolastica Tudela Cabrera remembers when Japanese soldiers arrived “at our cave with their big swords and said if anybody went to the Americans, they would cut our throats.”38 Threats like these, which happened in the context of the apparent impossibility of reaching safety, prompted entire families to commit suicide, as U.S. Marines and Soldiers reported.39 Japanese military personnel, too, opted for suicide, rather than face execution at the hands of their own compatriots for attempting to surrender to the Americans. The worst scenes played out atop the cliffs at the island’s northern tip. “The Japanese [were] jumping from the cliffs at Marpi Point,” remembers Lieutenant VanDusen, who watched the scenes from aboard Twining: “We could see our men in their camouflage uniforms talking to them with loudspeakers, trying to convince them that no harm would come to them, but obviously this was to no avail.”40 The Aftermath When it was all over, Saipan could be declared secure. The date was 9 July, more than three weeks since the start of the invasion.41 Now began the work of tending and processing the prisoners, both civilian and military. Lieutenant j.g. Martin, who had landed on D-Day-plus-5, helped set up and administer the island’s internment and displaced persons camp. “The Marines were bringing in prisoners even before we got there,” he says, and in the beginning, “everybody was kept under guard no matter if they were Japanese, Korean, or Chamorros,” the term for indigenous islanders. Eventually, Martin and the others had the idea of separating these groups, not least of all because conflict persisted after years of exploitation by the Japanese. Moreover, the Chamorros, as well as people of mixed ancestry, Japanese troops, and Korean combatants, who had been drafted into the Japanese forces, now held differing legal status with respect to the laws of war and the United States.42 Among their many tasks, Martin and his fellow Navy and Army officers had to distinguish among prisoners, some of whom held more than one status at once. Meanwhile, Navy civil engineers (Seabees) delineated a plan for the camp and ordered the construction of shelters and other facilities. “They were pretty flimsy buildings,” recalls Martin, with “corrugated tin roofs and . . . open at the sides.”43 Drainage, especially from the privies, was of serious concern.44 An inmate’s experience of Camp Susupe, as it was called, depended largely on his or her ethnicity, gender, and combat status. Antonieta Ada, a girl of mixed Japanese-Chamorro parentage, describes the place as absolutely “awful.” When, finally, her Chamorro father managed to locate Antonieta and have her transferred to his people’s section of the camp, things changed for the young girl: “The Chamorro camp seemed to have better accommodations and better food,” she attests. Antonieta’s Japanese mother was not so fortunate. As a fully Japanese adult civilian, she had to remain in the Japanese section. “I saw my Japanese mother only once after my arrival in Camp Susupe,” says Antonieta. “She was very weak and could hardly talk. She died not long after that.” Antonieta’s brother also had to remain in the Japanese section, which appears to have been the practice in these situations. After the war, he would be forcibly repatriated to Japan.45 Chamorro people with no Japanese family reported a different set of experiences and feelings—primarily relief and even gratitude. “In Camp Susupe,” according to Marie Soledad Castro, “we were so thankful that the Americans came and saved our lives. There was a rumor at that time that the Japanese were going to throw all the Chamorros in a big hole and kill them. We felt that the Americans were God-sent.”46 Wages of War The invasion of Saipan was horrific. When it ended, at least 23,000 Japanese troops were dead, and more than 1,780 had been captured.47 Nearly 15,000 civilians languished in U.S. custody. Finally, 22,000 Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, and Chamorro civilians—as well as those of mixed ancestry—had fallen victim to murder, suicide, or the crossfire of battle.48 The Americans suffered 26,000 casualties, 5,000 of which were deaths.49 Yet the American victory was decisive. Japan’s National Defense Zone, demarcated by a line that the Japanese had deemed essential to hold in the effort to stave off U.S. invasion, had been blown open.50 Japan’s access to scarce resources in Southeast Asia was now compromised, and the Caroline and Palau islands now appeared to be ready for the taking.51 As historian Alan J. Levine points out, the capture of the Marianas amounted to a “decisive break-in” on the level of the nearly concurrent Allied breakthrough at Normandy and the Soviet breakthrough in Eastern Europe, which portended the siege of Berlin and the destruction of the Third Reich, Japan’s principal ally.52 The global context of the defeat was not lost on the Japanese command or the Japanese public, but now there were more immediate vulnerabilities to consider.53 On 15 June, the same day as Saipan’s D-day, American forces accomplished the first long-range bombing raid on Japan from bases in China. With Saipan’s airfields soon to be operational (as well as those of Tinian and Guam, which the Americans would surely get in due course) and with Japanese air power having been all but eliminated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, there was no protecting the home islands from aerial bombardment.54 The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June to 9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and the Army's 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito. The loss of Saipan, with the deaths of at least 29,000 troops and heavy civilian casualties, precipitated the resignation of Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tōjō and left the Japanese archipelago within the range of United States Army Air Forces B-29 bombers. Contents 1 Background 2 Opposing forces 2.1 American order of battle 2.2 Japanese order of battle 3 Battle 4 Further resistance 5 Civilian casualties 6 American military awards 7 Aftermath 8 Memorial 9 In popular culture 10 See also 11 Notes 12 Further reading 12.1 Books 12.2 Web 13 External links Background This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Battle of Saipan" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) In the campaigns of 1943 and the first half of 1944, the Allies had captured the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Papuan Peninsula of New Guinea. This left the Japanese holding the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, the Palau Islands, and the Mariana Islands. It had always been the intention of the American planners to bypass the Carolines and Palauan islands and to seize the Marianas and Taiwan. From these latter bases, communications between the Japanese archipelago and Japanese forces to the south and west could be cut. From the Marianas, Japan would be well within the range of an air offensive relying on the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress long-range bomber with its operational radius of 3,250 mi (5,230 km). While not part of the original American plan, Douglas MacArthur, commander of the Southwest Pacific Area command, obtained authorization to advance through New Guinea and Morotai toward the Philippines. This allowed MacArthur to keep his personal pledge to liberate the Philippines, made in his "I shall return" speech, and also allowed the active use of the large forces built up in the southwest Pacific theatre. The Japanese, expecting an attack somewhere on their perimeter, thought an attack on the Caroline Islands most likely. To reinforce and supply their garrisons, they needed naval and air superiority, so Operation A-Go, a major carrier attack, was prepared for June 1944. Opposing forces Further information: Battle of Saipan order of battle US Naval commanders for Operation Forager Vice Adm. Raymond A. Spruance Rear Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner V Amphibious Corps commanders Lieut. Gen. Holland M. Smith Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt Marine division commanders on Saipan Maj. Gen. Thomas E. Watson Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Cates Navajo codetalkers played a key role in directing naval gunfire onto Japanese positions. American order of battle U.S. Fifth Fleet[6] Admiral Raymond A. Spruance in heavy cruiser Indianapolis Joint Expeditionary Force (Task Force 51) Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner in amphibious command ship Rocky Mount Northern Attack Force (Task Force 52) Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner in amphibious command ship Rocky Mount V Amphibious Corps Commanding General (thru 12 Jul): Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith Commanding General (after 12 Jul): Major General Harry Schmidt Chief of Staff: Brigadier General Graves B. Erskine Northern sector (Red and Green beaches): 2nd Marine Division (21,746 officers and enlisted) Commanding General: Major General Thomas E. Watson Asst. Div. Commander: Brigadier General Merritt A. Edson 2nd Marine Regiment (Infantry) Commanding Officer: Colonel Walter J. Stuart Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. John H. Griebel 6th Marine Regiment (Infantry) Commanding Officer: Colonel James P. Riseley Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. Kenneth F. McLeod 8th Marine Regiment (Infantry) Commanding Officer: Colonel Clarence R. Wallace Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. Jack P. Juhan 10th Marine Regiment (Artillery) Commanding Officer: Colonel Raphael Griffin Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. Ralph E. Forsyth 18th Marine Regiment (Engineers) Commanding Officer: Lieut. Col. Ewart S. Laue 1st Battalion, 29th Marine Regiment[7] Commanding Officer: Lieut. Col. Rathvon M. Tompkins (to 2 Jul) then Lieut. Col. Jack P. Juhan Amphibious Unit: 715th Amphibian Tractor Bttn. (Army) Southern sector (Blue and Yellow beaches): 4th Marine Division (21,618 officers and enlisted) Commanding General (thru 12 Jul): Major General Harry Schmidt Commanding General (after 12 Jul): Major General Clifton B. Cates Asst. Div. Commander: Brigadier General Samuel C. Cumming 14th Marine Regiment (Artillery) Commanding Officer: Colonel Louis G. DeHaven Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. Randall M. Victory 20th Marine Regiment (Engineers) Commanding Officer: Lieut. Col. Nelson K. Brown Executive Officer: Captain William M. Anderson 23rd Marine Regiment (Infantry) Commanding Officer: Colonel Louis R. Jones Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. John R. Lanigan 24th Marine Regiment (Infantry) Commanding Officer: Colonel Franklin A. Hart Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. Austin R. Brunelli 25th Marine Regiment (Infantry) Commanding Officer: Colonel Merton J. Batchelder Executive Officer: Lieut. Col. Clarence J. O'Donnell Amphibious Units: 708th Amphibian Tank Bttn. (Army), 773rd Amphibian Tractor Bttn. (Army), 534th Amphibian Tractor Bttn. (Army) Army (landed D+1): 27th Infantry Division (16,404 officers and enlisted) Commanding General (thru 24 Jun): Major General Ralph C. Smith Commanding General (24 Jun thru 28 Jun): Major General Sanderford Jarman Commanding General (after 28 Jun): Major General George W. Griner 105th Infantry Regiment 106th Infantry Regiment 165th Infantry Regiment Artillery: 104th Field Artillery Bttn., 105th Field Artillery Bttn., 106th Field Artillery Bttn., 249th Field Artillery Bttn. Engineers: 102nd Engineer Combat Bttn., 502nd Engineer Combat Bttn. XXIV Corps Artillery Commanding General: Brigadier General Arthur M. Harper 1st Provisional Gun Group 225th Field Artillery Howitzer Group Navy UDT 5, UDT 6, UDT 7 Japanese order of battle Vice Adm. Chūichi Nagumo, commander of Imperial forces in the Marianas Lt. Gen. Saito Yoshitsugu, commander of Imperial forces on Saipan Central Pacific Area Fleet HQ[8] Commanding officer: Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo (self-inflicted gunshot 6 July) Chief of staff: Rear Admiral Hideo Yano (seppuku 7 July) 31st Army Commanding officer: Lieutenant General Hideyoshi Obata (on inspection tour of Guam during battle; seppuku there 11 August) 14th Air Fleet Defenses of Saipan Commanding General: Lieutenant General Saito Yoshitsugu (seppuku 7 July) 43rd Infantry Division 118th Infantry Regiment 135th Infantry Regiment 136th Infantry Regiment 47th Independent Mixed Brigade 316th Independent Infantry Battalion 317th Independent Infantry Battalion 318th Independent Infantry Battalion Other units: 3rd Independent Mountain Artillery Regiment 9th Tank Regiment (of 1st Tank Division) 3rd Battalion, 9th Independent Mixed Regiment 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment 25th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment 14th Independent Mortar Battalion 17th Independent Mortar Battalion Miscellaneous straggler units Battle Map showing the progress of the Battle of Saipan Red Beach 2 at 13:00 Marines march through Garapan, 6 July 1944 Marines take cover behind a M4 Sherman tank while clearing Japanese forces from the northern end of the island of Saipan. 8 July 1944. Holding a Colt M1911, a Marine moves cautiously through the jungle of Saipan. July 1944. A Marine talks a terrified Chamorro woman and her children into abandoning their refuge. Battle of Saipan - US Navy docked GAG03 Japanese cannon at Saipan, after battle Japanese beach defense Map of U.S. landings, Saipan encircled The bombardment of Saipan began on 13 June 1944. 15 battleships were involved, and 165,000 shells were fired. Seven modern fast battleships delivered 2,400 16 in (410 mm) shells, but to avoid potential minefields, fire was from a distance of 10,000 yd (9,100 m) or more, and crews were inexperienced in shore bombardment. The following day the eight older battleships and eleven cruisers under Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf replaced the fast battleships but were lacking in time and ammunition.[9] The landings[10] began at 07:00 on 15 June 1944. More than 300 LVTs landed 8,000 Marines on the west coast of Saipan by about 09:00. Eleven fire support ships covered the Marine landings. The naval force consisted of the battleships Tennessee and California, the cruisers Birmingham and Indianapolis, the destroyers Norman Scott, Monssen, Coghlan, Halsey Powell, Bailey, Robinson, and Albert W. Grant. Careful artillery preparation — placing flags in the lagoon to indicate the range — allowed the Japanese to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and they strategically placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximize the American casualties. However, by nightfall, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions had a beachhead about 6 mi (10 km) wide and 0.5 mi (1 km) deep.[11] The Japanese counter-attacked at night but were repulsed with heavy losses. On 16 June, units of the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Division landed and advanced on the airfield at Ås Lito. Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. On 18 June, Saito abandoned the airfield. The invasion surprised the Japanese high command, which had been expecting an attack further south. Admiral Soemu Toyoda, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), saw an opportunity to use the A-Go force to attack the U.S. Navy forces around Saipan. On 15 June, he gave the order to attack. But the resulting battle of the Philippine Sea was a disaster for the IJN, which lost three aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes. The garrisons of the Marianas would have no hope of resupply or reinforcement. Without resupply, the battle on Saipan was hopeless for the defenders, but the Japanese were determined to fight to the last man. Saito organized his troops into a line anchored on Mount Tapotchau in the defensible mountainous terrain of central Saipan. The nicknames given by the Americans to the features of the battle — "Hell's Pocket", "Purple Heart Ridge" and "Death Valley" — indicate the severity of the fighting. The Japanese used many caves in the volcanic landscape to delay the attackers, by hiding during the day and making sorties at night. The Americans gradually developed tactics for clearing the caves by using flamethrower teams supported by artillery and machine guns. The operation was marred by inter-service controversy when Marine General Holland Smith, unsatisfied with the performance of the 27th Division, relieved its commander, Army Major General Ralph C. Smith. However, General Holland Smith had not inspected the terrain over which the 27th was to advance. Essentially, it was a valley surrounded by hills and cliffs under Japanese control. The 27th took heavy casualties and eventually, under a plan developed by General Ralph Smith and implemented after his relief, had one battalion hold the area while two other battalions successfully flanked the Japanese.[12] By 6 July, the Japanese had nowhere to retreat. Saito made plans for a final suicidal banzai charge. On the fate of the remaining civilians on the island, Saito said, "There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured." At dawn of the 7th, a group of 12 men carrying a great red flag in the lead, the remaining able-bodied troops — about 4,000 men — charged forward in the final attack. Amazingly, behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. The Japanese surged over the American front lines, engaging both Army and Marine units. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment were almost destroyed, losing well over 650 killed and wounded. However, the fierce resistance of these two battalions, as well as that of Headquarters Company, 105th Infantry, and of supply elements of 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Artillery Regiment, resulted in over 4,300 Japanese killed and resulted in 2,000 dead US soldiers. For their actions during the 15-hour Japanese attack, three men of the 105th Infantry Regiment were awarded the Medal of Honor, Lt. Col. William O'Brien, Cpt. Ben L. Salomon, Pvt. Thomas A. Baker, all posthumously. The attack on July 7th would be the largest Japanese Banzai charge in the Pacific War.[13][4] By 16:15 on 9 July, Admiral Turner announced that Saipan was officially secured.[14] Saito, along with commanders Hirakushi and Igeta, committed suicide in a cave. Vice-admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the naval commander who led the Japanese carriers at Pearl Harbor, also committed suicide in the closing stages of the battle. He had been in command of the Japanese naval air forces stationed on the island. In the end, almost the entire garrison of troops on the island — at least 29,000 — died. For the Americans, the victory was the most costly to date in the Pacific War: out of 71,000 who landed, 2,949 were killed and 10,464 wounded.[15][16] Future Hollywood actor Lee Marvin was among the many Americans wounded. He was serving with "I" Company, 24th Marine Regiment, when he was hit by shrapnel in the buttocks by Japanese mortar fire during the assault on Mount Tapochau. He was awarded the Purple Heart and was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class in 1945.[17] Further resistance While the battle officially ended on July 9, Japanese resistance still persisted with Captain Sakae Ōba and 46 other soldiers who survived with him during the last banzai charge.[18][19] After the battle, Oba and his soldiers led many civilians throughout the jungle of the island to escape capture by the Americans, while also conducting guerrilla-style attacks on pursuing forces. The Americans tried numerous times to hunt them down but failed due to their speed and stealth. In September 1944, the Marines began conducting patrols in the island's interior, searching for survivors who were raiding their camp for supplies.[19] Although some of the soldiers wanted to fight, Captain Ōba asserted that their primary concerns were to protect the civilians and to stay alive to continue the war. At one point, the Japanese soldiers and civilians were almost captured by the Americans as they hid in a clearing and ledges of a mountain, some were less than 20 feet (6.1 m) above the heads of the Marines, but the Americans failed to see them.[18] Oba's holdout lasted for over a year (approximately 16 months) before finally surrendering on December 1, 1945, three months after the official surrender of Japan. Oba was so successful in his resistance that the Marines nicknamed him the "Fox", and once even caused the reassignment of a commander.[18] Civilian casualties Being a former Spanish and then German territory, Saipan became a Mandate of Japan by the League of Nations after World War I, and thus, a large number of Japanese civilians lived there — at least 25,000.[20] The U.S. erected a civilian prisoner encampment on 23 June 1944 that soon had more than 1,000 inmates. Electric lights at the camp were conspicuously left on overnight to attract other civilians with the promise of three warm meals and no risk of accidentally being shot in combat.[20] Weapons and the tactics of close quarter fighting also resulted in high civilian casualties. Civilian shelters were located virtually everywhere on the island, with very little difference noticeable to attacking marines. The standard method of clearing suspected bunkers was with high-explosive and/or high-explosives augmented with petroleum (e.g., gelignite, napalm, diesel fuel). In such conditions, there were high civilian casualties.[21] More than 1,000 Japanese civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle to take the offered privileged place in the afterlife, some jumping from places later named "Suicide Cliff" and "Banzai Cliff". These would become part of the National Historic Landmark District as Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, designated in 1985. Today the sites are a memorial and Japanese people visit to console the victims' souls.[22][23] American military awards Robert H. McCard Main article: Robert H. McCard Robert H. McCard On 16 June 1944, Gunnery Sergeant Robert H. McCard, a U.S. Marine, killed sixteen enemies while sacrificing himself to ensure the safety of his tank crew. McCard was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. The USS Robert H. McCard (DD-822), a Gearing-class destroyer, was named in his honor. Harold G. Epperson Main article: Harold G. Epperson On 25 June 1944, PFC Harold G. Epperson, part of the 2nd Marine Division, threw himself on a grenade to contain the blast from killing members of his squad. For his bravery and sacrifice, PFC Epperson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.[24] Epperson's Medal of Honor was presented to his mother in a ceremony on Wednesday, 4 July 1945 in Tiger Stadium, Massillon, Ohio. The USS Epperson (DD-719), a Gearing-class destroyer, was named in his honor. William O'Brien Main article: William J. O'Brien (Medal of Honor) When the 1st Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment came under attack from a much larger enemy force on 7 July, Lieutenant Colonel William O'Brien refused to leave the front lines even after being wounded, and continued to lead his men until being overrun and killed. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on 9 May 1945, for his actions throughout the battle for Saipan. The U.S. Army ship USAT Col. William J. O'Brien, which served in the Pacific Ocean at the end of World War II, was named in his honor. Thomas A. Baker Main article: Thomas Baker (Medal of Honor) On 7 July, Private Thomas A. Baker and his comrades from the 1st Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, came under attack by a large Japanese force. Although seriously wounded early in the attack, he refused to be evacuated and continued to fight in the close-range battle until running out of ammunition. When a comrade was wounded while trying to carry him to safety, Baker insisted that he be left behind. At his request, his comrades left him propped against a tree and gave him a pistol, which had eight bullets remaining. When American forces retook the position, they found the pistol, now empty, and eight dead Japanese soldiers around Baker's body. Baker was posthumously promoted to sergeant and, on 9 May 1945, awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions throughout the battle for Saipan.[25] He was buried at Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville, New York.[26] Ben L. Salomon Main article: Ben L. Salomon On 7 July 1944, Army Captain Ben L. Salomon, the battalion dentist of 2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division aided the evacuation of wounded soldiers. After defending his unarmed patients from four Japanese soldiers, he manned a machine gun post and effectively repelled numerous enemy forces to enable the evacuation of wounded personnel. When his body was recovered after the battle, 98 dead Japanese soldiers were found in front of his position. For gallantry in battle, Captain Ben L. Salomon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in May 2002.[27] Salomon was the third Jewish service member to be awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II. Guy Gabaldon Main article: Guy Gabaldon Isely Field, filled with B-29 bombers, mid-1945 PFC Guy Gabaldon, of Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, was a Mexican-American from Los Angeles. He is officially credited with capturing more than 1,000 Japanese prisoners during the battle. PFC Gabaldon, who was raised by Japanese-Americans, used a combination of street Japanese and guile to convince soldiers and civilians alike that U.S. troops were not barbarians, and that they would be well treated upon surrender. For his outstanding bravery, which earned him the nickname, "The Pied Piper of Saipan," Gabaldon received a Silver Star, which was upgraded to the Navy Cross.[28] During the war, his commanders had requested that he receive the Medal of Honor for his actions; however, his initial award was the Silver Star. In 1998, efforts were re-initiated to secure the Medal of Honor for PFC Gabaldon.[29] The effort was ongoing in 2006.[30] Aftermath Although major fighting had officially ceased on 9 July, pockets of Japanese resistance continued. In September 1944, U.S. Marines began patrols into the island interior in order to bring in civilians and soldiers still holding out in the jungles. A group led by Captain Sakae Oba managed to evade capture for more than 512 days until surrendering to American forces on 1 December 1945, three months after the official surrender of Japan. In February 2011, a film about Oba, Oba: The Last Samurai, was released in Japan. With the capture of Saipan, the American military was now only 1,300 mi (1,100 nmi; 2,100 km) away from the home islands of Japan. The victory would prove to be one of the most important strategic moments during the war in the Pacific Theater, as the Japanese archipelago was now within striking distance of United States' B-29 bombers.[31] From this point on, Saipan would become the launch point for retaking other islands in the Mariana chain and the invasion of the Philippines in October 1944. Four months after capture, more than 100 B-29s from Saipan's Isely Field were regularly attacking the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands and the Japanese mainland. In response, Japanese aircraft attacked Saipan and Tinian on several occasions between November 1944 and January 1945. The U.S. capture of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) ended further Japanese air attacks. The loss of Saipan was a heavy blow to both the military and civilian administration of Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tōjō. According to one Japanese admiral: "Our war was lost with the loss of Saipan." U.S. Marine Corps General Holland Smith said: "It was the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive [...] it opened the way to the Japanese home islands."[32] Shortly after Saipan was taken, a meeting at the Imperial General Headquarters was convened where it was decided that a symbolic change of leadership should be made: Tōjō would step aside and Emperor Hirohito would have less involvement in day-to-day military affairs, even though he was defined as both head of state and the Generalissimo of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces according to the Meiji Constitution of 1889. The general staff believed it was now time to distance the Imperial House of Japan from blame as the tide of war turned against the Japanese.[20] Although Tōjō agreed to resign, Hirohito blocked his resignation because he considered Tōjō to be Japan's strongest war leader. But after Tōjō failed to shuffle his Cabinet due to excessive internal hostility, he conceded defeat.[20] On 18 July, Tōjō again submitted his resignation, this time unequivocally. His entire cabinet resigned with him.[33] Former IJA General Kuniaki Koiso became Prime Minister on 22 July. However, due to the legacy of Saipan, Koiso was nothing more than a titular Prime Minister, and was prevented by the Imperial General Headquarters from participating in any military decisions.[34] Saipan also saw a change in the way Japanese war reporting was presented on the home front. Initially, as the battle started, Japanese accounts concentrated on the fighting spirit of the IJA and the heavy casualties it was inflicting on American forces. However, any reader familiar with Saipan's geography would have known from the chronology of engagements that the U.S. forces were relentlessly advancing northwards. No further mention of Saipan was made following the final battle on 7 July, which was not initially reported to the public.[35] However, after Tōjō's resignation on 18 July, an accurate, almost day-by-day, account of the defeat on Saipan was published jointly by the Army and Navy. It mentioned the near total loss of all Japanese soldiers and civilians on the island and the use of "human bullets". The reports had a devastating effect on Japanese opinion; mass suicides were now seen as defeat, not evidence of an "Imperial Way".[36] This was the first time Japanese forces had accurately been depicted in a battle since Midway, which had been proclaimed a victory.[36] After the war concluded, apologists for Hirohito asserted that the order encouraging the civilians of Saipan to commit suicide for benefits in the afterlife had in fact been forged, along with other incriminating orders."[20] Memorial Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff, along with a number of surviving isolated Japanese fortifications, are recognized as historic sites on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The cliffs are also part of the National Historic Landmark District Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, which also includes the American landing beaches, the B-29 runways of Isley Field, and the surviving Japanese infrastructure of the Aslito and Marpi Point airfields. The American Memorial Park on Saipan commemorates the U.S. and Mariana veterans of the Mariana Islands campaign. In popular culture The novel Away All Boats, from which a film was made, was based on the author's personal experiences on an attack transport. One long section gives a very detailed account of the battle as seen by the crew members both on board and on shore. The film Oba: The Last Samurai depicted the last banzai charge of the Japanese during the war, and the holdout of Captain Sakae Ōba. The novel Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy begins with a character purchasing land on Saipan near the Banzai Cliff where his parents and siblings jumped to their deaths. Saipan features heavily in the rest of the novel. See also Battle of Saipan order of battle Maritime Heritage Trail – Battle of Saipan Windtalkers USS Saipan (CVL-48) USS Saipan (LHA-2) On June 15, 1944, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II (1939-45), U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining a crucial air base from which the U.S. could launch its new long-range B-29 bombers directly at Japan’s home islands. Facing fierce Japanese resistance, Americans poured from their landing crafts to establish a beachhead, battle Japanese soldiers inland and force the Japanese army to retreat north. Fighting became especially brutal and prolonged around Mount Tapotchau, Saipan’s highest peak, and Marines gave battle sites in the area names such as “Death Valley” and “Purple Heart Ridge.” When the U.S. finally trapped the Japanese in the northern part of the island, Japanese soldiers launched a massive but futile banzai charge. On July 9, the U.S. flag was raised in victory over Saipan. U.S. Commanders Focus on Taking Saipan In the spring of 1944, U.S. forces involved in the Pacific Campaign invaded Japanese-held islands in the central Pacific Ocean along a path toward Japan. An armada of 535 U.S. ships with 127,000 troops, including 77,000 Marines, had taken the Marshall Islands, and American high command next sought to capture the Mariana Islands, which formed the critical front line for Japan’s defense of its empire. Did you know? When U.S. forces stormed the beaches of Saipan on June 15, 1944, 800 African-American Marines unloaded food and ammunition from landing vehicles and delivered the supplies under fire to troops on the beach. They were the first African-American Marines to see combat in World War II. U.S. commanders reasoned that taking the main Mariana Islands–Saipan, Tinian and Guam–would cut off Japan from its resource-rich southern empire and clear the way for further advances to Tokyo. At Saipan, the island nearest to Japan, U.S. forces could establish a crucial air base from which the U.S. Army’s new long-range B-29 Superfortress bombers could inflict punishing strikes on Japan’s home islands ahead of an Allied invasion. American commanders decided to make the first Mariana landing on Saipan, the largest of the Mariana Islands. Saipan, which had been under Japanese rule since 1920, had a garrison of approximately 30,000 Japanese troops, according to some accounts, and an important airfield at Aslito. Marine General Holland M. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith (1882-1967) was given a plan of battle and ordered to take the island in three days. After the invasion of Saipan, according to the plan, U.S. forces would quickly move to seize Guam and Tinian. However, American intelligence services had greatly underestimated Japanese troop strength on Saipan. The Landing and First Phase of the Battle On the morning of June 15, 1944, a large fleet of U.S. transport ships gathered near the southwest shores of Saipan, and Marines began riding toward the beaches in hundreds of amphibious landing vehicles. Battleships, destroyers and planes had pounded key targets in pre-assault bombardments, but they had missed many gun emplacements along the beach cliffs. Subsequently, Marines headed straight into exploding bombs and streaming gunfire. In “Breaching the Marianas: the Battle for Saipan,” author John C. Chapin, a Marine on Saipan, described the chaos around him that morning, with its “bodies lying in mangled and grotesque positions; blasted and burned out pillboxes; the burning wrecks of LVTs [landing vehicles] …; the acrid smell of high explosives; the shattered trees; and the churned up sand littered with discarded equipment.” Despite the heavy resistance they faced, 8,000 Marines managed to reach the shore that first morning. By the end of the day, some 20,000 troops had established a beachhead on Saipan; however, the U.S. had suffered approximately 2,000 casualties in the process. The next morning, the troops were joined by U.S. Army reinforcements and began pushing inland toward Aslito Airfield and Japanese forces in the southern and central parts of the island. On June 18, American troops continued to spread out across the island even as their offshore naval protection departed to head off the Japanese Imperial Fleet that had been sent to aid in the defense of Saipan. Death Valley and Purple Heart Ridge After having failed to stop the American landing on Saipan, the Japanese army retreated to Mount Tapotchau, the mountain peak that dominates the island. Located at the center of Saipan, Mount Tapotchau is the island’s highest point, rising some 1,550 feet. In intensive fighting, U.S forces gradually drove the Japanese defense from their nearly impregnable position in the heights. As the battle raged, Smith ordered a contingent of troops to assault Japanese positions by moving across a large, much exposed valley. Soon to be designated “Death Valley,” the area was bordered by a ridge where well-protected, heavily armed Japanese soldiers fired directly down on the approaching Americans. The Marines dubbed the ridge “Purple Heart Ridge” for the many American casualties sustained there. Fighting their way through rugged jungle terrain, Marines finally won control of Mount Tapotchau by the end of June. The Japanese were forced to retreat further north, marking the turning point in the Battle of Saipan. Banzai Charge: July 6 By early July, the forces of Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito (1890-1944), the Japanese commander on Saipan, had retreated to the northern part of the island, where they were trapped by American land, sea and air power. Saito had expected the Japanese navy to help him drive the Americans from the island, but the Imperial Fleet had suffered a devastating defeat in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19-20, 1944) and never arrived at Saipan. Realizing he could no longer hold out against the American onslaught, Saito apologized to Tokyo for failing to defend Saipan and committed ritual suicide. Before his death, however, Saito ordered his remaining troops to launch an all-out, surprise attack for the honor of the emperor. Early on the morning of July 6, an estimated 4,000 Japanese soldiers shouting “Banzai!” charged with grenades, bayonets, swords and knives against an encampment of soldiers and Marines near Tanapag Harbor. In wave after wave, the Japanese overran parts of several U.S. battalions, engaging in hand-to-hand combat and killing or wounding more than a thousand Americans before being repelled by howitzers and point-blank machine-gun fire. It was the largest banzai charge of the Pacific war, and, as was the nature of such an attack, most Japanese troops fought to their death. However, the suicidal maneuver failed to turn the tide of the battle, and on July 9, U.S. forces raised the American flag in victory over Saipan. Aftermath of the Battle The brutal three-week Battle of Saipan resulted in more than 3,000 U.S. deaths and over 13,000 wounded. For their part, the Japanese lost at least 27,000 soldiers, by some estimates. On July 9, when Americans declared the battle over, thousands of Saipan’s civilians, terrified by Japanese propaganda that warned they would be killed by U.S. troops, leapt to their deaths from the high cliffs at the island’s northern end. The loss of Saipan stunned the political establishment in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. Political leaders came to understand the devastating power of the long-range U.S. bombers. Furthermore, many of Saipan’s citizens were Japanese, and the loss of Saipan marked the first defeat in Japanese territory that had not been added during Japan’s aggressive expansion by invasion in 1941 and 1942. Worse still, General Hideki Tojo (1884-1948), Japan’s militaristic prime minister, had publicly promised that the United States would never take Saipan. He was forced to resign a week after the U.S. conquest of the island.
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