Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific War

By Bruce M. Petty. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002. 204 pp., $55.00 hardcover.

On 15 June 1944, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions landed at eight beaches on Saipan and met immediate resistance from the Japanese, requiring reinforcement by the Army's 27th Infantry Division. The small island of Saipan of the Marianas chain in the Pacific Ocean was the centre of a ferocious maelstrom of fire and steel from that time until 8 July 1944, when a fanatical last-ditch counterattack was conducted by the Japanese and organized resistance came to an end. American casualties on Saipan were 3,126 killed, 13,600 wounded, and 326 missing. Japanese losses -- including hundreds of civilians who committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs -- totalled about 27,000 killed. Saipan was one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War.
Time and nature have covered most of the ugly scars of war on the island. A few rusting tanks, remnants of crashed airplanes, and partially destroyed bunkers, however, serve as silent reminders of the intensity of the battle for Saipan. The emotional scars of the native islanders and American participants in the battle have not healed as easily, as revealed in this collection of interesting and frequently poignant oral histories.
Author (actually editor) Bruce M. Petty lived on Saipan from 1995 to 2000 researching this volume and conducting interviews. After an introductory overview, the main body of the book consists of transcripts of thirty-nine oral interviews, divided into two sections. The first section is "Micronesian Voices: Oral Histories of the Pacific Islanders," which is subdivided by location: Saipan, Yap and Tinian, Rota, Palau Islands, and Guam. "American Voices: Oral Histories of US Military Veterans and Their Families" is the topic of the second half of the book, where the reminiscences are arranged by service: Marines, Army, Navy, Army Air Force, and Home Front.
Many of the interviewees, especially the Islanders, recall the death, destruction, and carnage of the battle. Vicky (Akiyama) Vaughan, eleven-years-old in 1944, recalled, "I watched so many members of my family die that day. I saw another cousin with her stomach ripped open. She kept trying to push her intestines back in with her dirty hands" (p. 20). Frequently, civilians came out of the island's many caves pretending to surrender, observed Cristino S. Dela Cruz, but in reality to throw hand grenades. An overwhelming number were relieved that the oppressive Japanese were finally on the receiving end of punishment. Marine Frank Borta recalled the fighting on Saipan as being "a continuous meat grinder," and as soon as Japanese snipers were detected, remembered Marine Carl Matthews, "they were dispatched to their ancestors." Honour, devotion, and frequently fear are themes that permeate the military accounts. The reminiscences are of an uneven quality, with some (especially of the Islanders) being rambling diatribes, filled with irrelevant minutiae and contemporary social commentary, while others are much more interesting and insightful. They are all, however, threads of the same tapestry of human experience.
The author recognizes the potential unreliability of oral histories when he states that, "Unlike the islanders, many of the US servicemen I have interviewed have been able to refer to diaries, regimental histories, cruise books, and other documented sources in recounting experiences during World War II" (p. 13). It is undeniable that people forget, and over the decades memories can fade and become embellished, selective, or otherwise distorted. As a result, in the absence of corroborating documentation that the reader can refer to, oral histories, while seemingly interesting, should be read and treated with some caution and skepticism.
This large (8 1/2" x 11"), well illustrated, although somewhat expensive book preserves the generally interesting and frequently emotional reminiscences of civilians and soldiers who were involved in the bloody June-July 1944 liberation of Saipan. These recollections help put a human face on the suffering and sacrifices at Saipan, reminding us that war is a veritable hell on earth.