battle of saipan casualty list

Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, JapanCentral Pacific Area Fleet HQ return From: Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Fighting became especially brutal and prolonged around Mount Tapotchau, Saipans 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. cit. The Battle of Saipan began on June 15, 1944, when the U.S. forces launched an attack on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands to gain an airbase within a direct striking distance of mainland Japan. STATES MARINE Three Americans were awarded posthumous Medals of Honor for repelling the relentless assaults. These, plus the fields of sugarcane, made taking and holding ground particularly slow going.32. In the early 1960s the absence of speed limit indications on Dutch motorways saw serious accidents on the rise, so the Rijkspolitie (State police) was tasked with finding a suitable vehicle for high-speed patrol. Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History 9th of June some of the events you will find here, please use the following link where you will find more details and all other events of this day . [26], The U.S. erected a civilian prisoner encampment on 23 June 1944 that soon had more than 1,000inmates. The American losses were also high. Gen. Smith and V Amphibious Corps anticipated that taking Saipan would be difficult and they wanted to have a mechanized flamethrowing capability. [13], While not part of the original American plan, MacArthur, commander of the Southwest Pacific Area command, obtained authorization to advance through New Guinea and Morotai toward the Philippines. Hands Fall 2005, Vol. 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. We have 681 casualty profiles listed in our archive. Although bases in the Marshalls lay fewer than 1,500 miles away, the islands desolate landscapes could not support any kind of large-scale mustering of men and materiel. Photo: Corp Angus Robertson/US Marines. She was very weak and could hardly talk. In response, Japanese aircraft attacked Saipan and Tinian on several occasions between November 1944 and January 1945. 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. 7,000 Japanese civilians (many of which were suicides) 22,000 civilians dead. Dela Cruzs family fled inland, as did so many others, to the apparent safety of an adjacent ridge. The standard method of clearing suspected bunkers was the use of high-explosive and/or high-explosives augmented with petroleum (e.g., gelignite, napalm, diesel fuel). Naval bombardment of the island had started two days earlier on the 13th, and had some effect in terms of weakening the Japanese defenses, but no amount of shelling could shake the Japanese soldiers' resolve. However, American intelligence services had greatly underestimated Japanese troop strength on Saipan. The battle -- June 19 to July 9, 1944 -- saw the United States gain important airstrips that enabled the bombing of the Japanese main islands, an event some have called the "death knell" for Tokyo . The BATTLE OF IWO JIMA: On 19 February 1945, Marines landed on Iwo Jima in what was the largest all-Marine battle in history. 126 of them include images. Despite the heavy resistance they faced, 8,000 Marines managed to reach the shore that first morning. The U.S. Navys decisive victory in the air-sea battle (June 3-6, 1942) and its successful defense of the major base located at read more, Beginning in the summer of 1943 during World War II (1939-1945), U.S. forces in the Pacific launched Operation Cartwheel, a series of amphibious assaults aimed at encircling the major Japanese base at Rabaul, on the island of New Britain in the southwest Pacific. Donald Sommerville is a writer and editor specializing in military history. 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. The attacks, which continued for 15 hours, killed more than 650 Americans. Memorial Wall at Asan Bay Overlook . The . To safeguard this veritable armada, he ordered that transports and supply ships clear the area by nightfall and head east out of harms 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 memorial consists of a 12-foot rectangular obelisk of rose granite in a landscaped area of local flora and a 20-foot tower to the north . 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 as part of Operation Forager. If you have any questions about these collections, please contact the Archives at (703) 784-4685 or history.division . Japans 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 Japans 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, Japans 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 Saipans D-day, American forces accomplished the first long-range bombing raid on Japan from bases in China. Finally, 22,000 Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, and Chamorro civiliansas well as those of mixed ancestryhad 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. Roosevelt. The Battle for Saipan. 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 as part of Operation Forager. Place of Death: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands; Award(s): Purple Heart; Cemetery: Section F, Grave 883. 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 highas many as 3,500 men in the first 24 hours of the invasion butin 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. Victory at Okinawa cost more than 49,000 American casualties, including about 12,000 deaths. The read more, The Battle of Midway was an epic clash between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy that played out six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On preparatory strikes, see Alvin D. Coox, The Pacific War, in The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 36 Oral testimony of Manuel Tenorio Sablan, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. They had prepared effective beach defenses, which caused the attacking Marines significant casualties, but the U.S. troops still managed to fight their way ashore. The element of surprise was the main factor in casualties being so low. Harris Martin. The plan had the support of U.S. Army Air Force planners because the airfields on Saipan were large enough to support B-29 operations, within range of the Japanese home islands, and unlike a China-based alternative, was not open to Japanese counter-attacks once the islands were secure. [citation needed], The Mariana Islands had not been a key part of pre-war American planning (War Plans Orange and Rainbow) because the islands were well north of a direct sea route between Hawaii and the Philippines. Click to View Online Archive. cit. 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. For the empire of Japan, the casualties were heavier. cit. See Kirby, War Against Japan, 429. If you would like to make a contribution to help to complete the database, please contact [email protected], with thanks! 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. [30] The effort was ongoing in 2006.[31]. See Related Resource: World War II Casualties for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. 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. Battle Of Saipan Casualties. The list also shows next of kin address. The invasion surprised the Japanese high command, which had been expecting an attack further south. The WW2 Casualties Database is a work in progress and a huge undertaking. Accounting Agency (pm), Part 3: The Decisive Battles (London: Her Majestys Stationery Office, 1961), 431. 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. 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. To surrender, a person would have to run into the crossfire, as Vickys family discovered. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. American commanders decided to make the first Mariana landing on Saipan, the largest of the Mariana Islands. Ben L. Salomon, Pvt. The Japanese war plan, aimed at the American, British, and Dutch possessions in the Pacific and in Southeast Asia, was of a rather makeshift character. The joint Japanese army and navy garrison had some 27,000 men. 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. for source abbreviations. PFC Guy Gabaldon, of Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, was credited with capturing more than 1,000 Japanese prisoners during the battle. 25 Heinrichs and Gallicchio, Implacable Foes, 98. ), 166. When it happened, in June and July 1944, the conquest of Saipan became the most daringand disturbingoperation 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. In intensive fighting, U.S forces gradually drove the Japanese defense from their nearly impregnable position in the heights. The Marines dubbed the ridge Purple Heart Ridge for the many American casualties sustained there. Image courtesy of US Navy. They were the first African-American Marines to see combat in World War II. Did you know? 26 Heinrichs and Gallicchio, Implacable Foes, 98; Rottman, World War II, 378. The Battle of Saipan began on June 15, 1944, when around 8,000 US Marines landed on the island of Saipan on the first day of the invasion. Today the sites are a memorial and Japanese people visit to console the victims' souls.[27][28]. 17 As Heinrichs and Gallicchio, Implacable Foes, 95, explain, Officers rounding up troops amid the confusion of the landing made their presence felt and in so doing became targets for snipers.. see the 'Glossary of U.S. At sea, the island's fate was sealed with the Japanese defeat at the Battle of . 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. They became trapped under their own house until Japanese soldiers, in search of a defensible position, pushed them out into the open. The Marine Corps' Navajo Code Talker Program was established in September 1942, when the US Military instituted a specific policy of recruitment and training of speakers of Native American language speaker. On September 15, 1944, U.S. Marines fighting in World War II (1939-45) landed on Peleliu, one of the Palau Islands of the western Pacific. Located 750 miles off the coast of Japan, the island of Iwo Jima had three airfields that could serve as a staging facility for a potential invasion of read more. STATES, MARINE Political leaders came to understand the devastating power of the long-range U.S. bombers. 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. [25] Although Tj agreed to resign, Emporer Hirohito blocked his resignation because he considered Tj to be Japan's strongest war leader. The deadliest battle in WWII, Dnieper, had 1.58 million casualties. ), 158. The campaign on Saipan had brought many American casualties, and it also heralded the kind of fighting which would be . Casualty List - U.S. Armed Forces - 1944. date order, as well as background to battles and actions %%EOF Two of the Dela Cruzs daughters died in a bombing. . [37] This was the first time Japanese forces had accurately been depicted in a battle since Midway, which had been proclaimed a victory.[37]. The resulting engagementthe Battle of the Philippine Sea of 1920 Juneresulted in a decisive U.S. victory that nearly eliminated Japans ability to wage war in the air. The Japanese were forced to retreat further north, marking the turning point in the Battle of Saipan. This force was the main naval fire support for the seizure of the island and consisted of 7 older battleships, 11 cruisers, and 26 destroyers, along with destroyer transports and fast minesweepers. Even so, yard for yard, Betiothe main island of Tarawa atollwas the toughest fortified position the Marines would ever face in World War II. Worse still, General Hideki Tojo (1884-1948), Japans militaristic prime minister, had publicly promised that the United States would never take Saipan. From there, several thousand troops carried out a suicidal night charge on July 67, killing many Americans but also being wiped out themselves. On February 19, 1945, men of the United States Marine Corps invaded the island of Iwo Jima, part of the Volcano Islands chain, in the North Pacific.This invasion, known as Operation Detachment, was a phase of the Pacfic Theatre of World War II.The American goal was to establish multiple airfields that would allow escort fighters to accompany long-range bombers in their attacks on the Japanese . The loss of Saipan stunned the political establishment in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. The battle of Saipan came at a high price, over 30,000 Japanese died in the battle, for the Americans it was the most costly battle in the Pacific war to that date. ), 162. To learn more about an individual, you may contact Bill Beigel for research options for that person by clicking "Submit Search Request.". They were using flamethrowers, and my back had been burned. 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 Tj and left the Japanese archipelago within the range of United States Army Air Forces B-29 bombers. Fortunately for the Americans, the Japanese had not succeeded, either, in their efforts to repulse the invaders. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. to Part 1 - by NAME: POW/MIA After that, only small pockets of resistance remained; the Battle of Saipan was effectively over. 1 And when it was over, the United States held islands that could place B-29 bombers within range of Tokyo. [citation needed], United StatesUS Fifth Fleet Around 24,000 were killed, 5,000 committed suicides, 921 were taken as prisoners of war, and among the 22,000 . to US Navy Casualties, WW2. 22 Heinrichs and Gallicchio, Implacable Foes, 95; Kirby, War Against Japan, 432. 2 - by DATE. By February 1944, it was obvious even to the islands 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. 54 Kirby, War Against Japan, 452; Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America, revised and expanded edition (New York: Free Press, 1994), 47677. The Japanese, expecting an attack somewhere on their perimeter, thought an attack on the Caroline Islands most likely. Cf. Saipan had a significant Japanese civilian population. Careful artillery preparation placing flags in the lagoon to indicate the range allowed the Japanese to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and they had placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximize the American casualties. Articles such as this one were acquired and published with the primary aim of expanding the information on Britannica.com with greater speed and efficiency than has traditionally been possible. For their part, the Japanese lost at least 27,000 soldiers, by some estimates. Oba's resistance was so successful that it caused the reassignment of a commander. The 1st and 2ndBattalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment were almost destroyed, losing well over 650killed and wounded. It was also the bloodiest in Marine Corps history. The Dutch police used Porsches between 1962 and 1996. 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 . 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. With Saipans 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, Adam Bisno, PhD, NHHC Communication and Outreach Division, June 2019. Admiral Shigetar Shimada, 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. Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. The intensity of the enemys fire resulted in one area becoming overcrowded with Marines trying to get a footing on shore. Direct After the war, he would be forcibly repatriated to Japan.45, Chamorro people with no Japanese family reported a different set of experiences and feelingsprimarily relief and even gratitude. Some of these troops were Koreans drafted into the Japanese forces. ), 18. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}1511N 14545E / 15.183N 145.750E / 15.183; 145.750. A few of the enemy infiltrated to the airstrip where the Seabees stopped them. 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. WWII Army and Army Air Force Casualties. While the battle officially ended on 9 July, Japanese resistance still persisted with Captain Sakae ba and 46 other soldiers who survived with him during the last banzai charge. [12], MacArthur's objections were not without tactical reasoning based on the experience of the invasion of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic), but were voiced before the vastly improved experience in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands (Operation Flintlock - Kwajalein, Eniwetok and other islands/atolls), the increase in naval forces, the successful attack on Truk and the Carolines islands by carrier-based aircraft (Hailstone), and coordinated armed services experience gained by all these operations in Admiral Chester Nimitzs Pacific Ocean Area of operations. 0 Among the dead was the Tenth Army's . . endstream endobj 93 0 obj <. Cf. 41 Coox, Pacific War, 362; Goldberg, D-Day, 2. Japanese casualties were extreme an estimated 4,000 dead. Before his death, however, Saito ordered his remaining troops to launch an all-out, surprise attack for the honor of the emperor. The list also includes 14 U.S. Defense . [10] 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 Sait. More than 300LVTs landed 8,000 Marines on the west coast of Saipan by about 09:00. Four of them (California, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee) were survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.[14]. This film is about the battle for Saipan in the Mariana Islands campaign during WWII. cit. In 1998, efforts were re-initiated to secure the Medal of Honor for Gabaldon. The old battleships, commissioned between 1915 and 1921, were trained in shore bombardment and were able to move into closer range. 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. Gus Widhelm of Scouting Eight. 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 - 9 July 1944. Without resupply, the battle on Saipan was hopeless for the defenders,[original research?] The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country's governments. One of my older brothers, Shiuichi, was killed during one of these air raids, reports Vicky Vaughan. ), 2324. Collection consists of 13 boxes (6.5 linear feet) of official records. The attack on 7 July would be the largest Japanese Banzai charge in the Pacific War.[18][7]. These would become part of the National Historic Landmark District as Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, designated in 1985. cit. In mid-1944, the next stage in the U.S. plan for the Pacific was to breach Japans defensive perimeter in the Mariana Islands and build bases there for the new long-range B-29 Superfortress bomber to strike the Japanese homeland. It cost the Marines 384 dead with 1,961 wounded. The Japanese had been pushed into a small pocket in the northern most part of Saipan. Battle of Saipan, capture of the island of Saipan during World War II by U.S. Marine and Army units from June 15 to July 9, 1944. He was awarded the Purple Heart and was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class in 1945.[22][importance?]. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured. In Camp Susupe, according to Marie Soledad Castro, we were so thankful that the Americans came and saved our lives. Later, when the bombs began to fall, classes ended for good.34. 35 Oral testimony of Cristino S. Dela Cruz, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. The results: conflicting tactics, conflicting expectations, and serious confusion.4, Adding to the complexity of the operation, a sizeable Japanese population lived on Saipan. In addition to William O'Brien, Ben L. Salomon and Thomas A. Baker, Gunnery Sergeant Robert H. McCard and PFC Harold G. Epperson, were each posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Families. 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. Naval Abbreviations", OPNAV [35], Saipan also saw a change in the way Japanese war reporting was presented on the home front. 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 being shot in combat accidentally. 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. 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. General Douglas read more, In the Battle of the Aleutian Islands (June 1942-August 1943) during World War II (1939-45), U.S. troops fought to remove Japanese garrisons established on a pair of U.S.-owned islands west of Alaska. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Fulfilling Our Nation's Promise. 29,000 casualties: 24,000 KIA. Every thing would have to come from great distance over perilous waters. 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. For days, Sailors had been watching the action on the shore from Sheridans decks. U.S. Marines on Saipan, Mariana Islands, 1944, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Saipan. cit. When it was all over, Saipan could be declared secure. Marines in World War II Commemorative Series by Captain John C. Chapin U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Ret) A Marine enters the outskirts of Garapan, Saipan, through the torii gate of a Shinto Shrine. 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. Many were killed in the fighting, but thousands more committed suicide, along with many soldiers, rather than come under the control of the Americans.