Sick, tired and hungry –
Jap civilians on Saipan stream through U.S. lines
Vanguard of plain people forms procession which eventually will lead to Tokyo
By Richard W. Johnston, United Press staff writer
Aboard joint expeditionary force flagship, off Saipan –
Trapped Jap soldiers on Saipan still fought bitterly from the caves of Marpi Point today, but Jap civilians – sick, tired and hungry – streamed down a designated road into our lines, forming a procession which eventually will lead to Tokyo.
They were the vanguard of the Japanese people – plain people capable of recognizing defeat and not imbued with the Bushidō spirit of immolation. They were people who, though half-dead, still wanted to live.
The response to our invitation to surrender distributed by leaflets surprised military leaders, who feared many Jap civilians would either elect or be forced to remain with the enemy troops in the constantly diminishing area of the northern tip of the island.
Make hopeless counterattack
While civilians of all ages and sexes were moving down a specially designated road on which it was forbidden to fire, elsewhere the remnants of the Jap defenders attempted a hopeless, desperate counterattack not unlike those at Attu and Makin.
Hundreds of enemy soldiers died in an assault against U.S. Army lines and those penetrating safely were mopped up in cane fields and ditches along the western coast.
From a series of observation point, it is possible for our troops to see the Marpi Point airstrip. This airstrip has been the object of frantic night aerial activity for three days and it was believed the Japs are making desperate efforts to land at least one or two planes there to evacuate high-ranking officers.
Second attempt fails
Another Jap escape effort was foiled when barges launched from the northwest coast apparently in the hope of sneaking to Tinian under cover of darkness were discovered by our troops.
While our ships near Saipan were blacked out during an enemy air raid, the barges began to move out. Our artillery fire blew them out the water.
Army and Marine units thus far have buried 8,914 Jap soldiers and that by no means represents all that have been killed. Many Jap bodies are still inside caves and others are strewn over rocky cliffs and jungles where they have escaped the notice of burial parties.
Jap air attacks light
Although Jap raiders are overhead every night, taking advantage of the full moon, their efforts have come to naught so far. They are always in small force, thanks to the constant hammering of the Rota and Guam airfields by our carrier-borne planes.
Organization of the conquered section of the island is proceeding rapidly. Work details and Seabees equipped with giant bulldozers are leveling off the wreckage of Garapan – almost shelled to the ground – while other groups are widening and surfacing the primitive roads which apparently served the Japs as “military highways.”
The battle for Saipan is not yet over – but there is no longer any doubt in anybody’s mind, including the Jap soldiers and civilians, as to the outcome.