battle of saipan casualty list

[34] Former IJA General Kuniaki Koiso became Prime Minister on 22 July. Although the price for victory was high, the seizure of Saipan was a highly significant step forward in the advance on the Japanese home islands. Saipan (June 1944). The old battleships, commissioned between 1915 and 1921, were trained in shore bombardment and were able to move into closer range. Fighting with fanatic resistance, nearly the . They also called in the operations reserves, the Armys 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. The 1st and 2ndBattalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment were almost destroyed, losing well over 650killed and wounded. Both sides suffered a lot of casualties, and this battle was deadly. See Related Resource: World War II Casualties for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. 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. 27 Heinrichs and Gallicchio, Implacable Foes, 9899. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured. 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 Saipans lucrative, sugarcane-laden soil. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-saipan. General Smith cautioned that a "banzai" attack would likely occur this night, and he was right. The American Memorial Park on Saipan commemorates the U.S. and Mariana veterans of the Mariana Islands campaign. 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. "[23], At least 25,000 Japanese civilians lived on Saipan at the time of the battle. Attack transport Sheridan (APA-51) was among the first of the ships to return. Hands Fall 2005, Vol. cit. 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 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. Organized Japanese resistance ended on July 9. . 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. The 27th took heavy casualties and eventually, under a plan developed by Ralph Smith and implemented after his relief, had one battalion hold the area while two other battalions successfully flanked the Japanese. 47 Rottman, World War II, 379. 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. to CZIVA. [25], 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". cit. From there, several thousand troops carried out a suicidal night charge on July 67, killing many Americans but also being wiped out themselves. Essentially, it was a valley surrounded by hills and cliffs under Japanese control. 126 of them include images. from the official USMC Chronology, are being added at: UNITED 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. The element of surprise was the main factor in casualties being so low. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and 27th Infantry Division . Harris Martin. His objections were routed through formal channels as well as bypassing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appealing directly to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and President Franklin D. 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. 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 . This film is about the battle for Saipan in the Mariana Islands campaign during WWII. 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 Japans home 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. U.S. Marines gave Oba the nickname "The Fox. The Navys 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. 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. . The call, which came from several members of the illegally operating 34 Oral testimony of Sister Antonieta Ada, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. I screamed hysterically.37, To many civilian families, neither surrender nor survival were available. 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. These articles have not yet undergone the rigorous in-house editing or fact-checking and styling process to which most Britannica articles are customarily subjected. 15 Kirby, War Against Japan, 432; Rottman, World War II, 378. 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. Meanwhile, Navy civil engineers (Seabees) delineated a plan for the camp and ordered the construction of shelters and other facilities. The list of requirements was exacting: it had to be mechanically reliable, it . A Marine fires on a Japanese pillbox. Roosevelt. The brutal three-week Battle of Saipan resulted in more than 3,000 U.S. deaths and over 13,000 wounded. A few of the enemy infiltrated to the airstrip where the Seabees stopped them. 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. 10 Goldberg, D-Day, 3; Heinrichs and Gallicchio, Implacable Foes, 94. [37] This was the first time Japanese forces had accurately been depicted in a battle since Midway, which had been proclaimed a victory.[37]. In Camp Susupe, according to Marie Soledad Castro, we were so thankful that the Americans came and saved our lives. National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawai'i; Contributed by Ivy Hoffman Mentored by Mrs. Erin Sullivan Cab Calloway School of the Arts 2021-2022 . 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. Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, JapanCentral Pacific Area Fleet HQ endstream endobj startxref means you've safely connected to the .mil website. 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.. Sait organized his troops into a line anchored on Mount Tapochau in the defensible mountainous terrain of central Saipan. In preparation, troops received training in rudimentary Japanese.5, Air raids began in February 1944, when the Navys Fast Carrier Force destroyed some of the islands docks. The intensity of the enemys fire resulted in one area becoming overcrowded with Marines trying to get a footing on shore. We have 5,219 casualty profiles listed in our archive. Of the four commanders of the 2nd Marine Divisions initial assault battalion, none escaped this phase of the battle unharmed.17. They became trapped under their own house until Japanese soldiers, in search of a defensible position, pushed them out into the open. Cabrera, 27. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting . The Battle of Tarawa was fought November 20-23, 1943, during World War II (1939-1945) and saw American forces launch their first offensive into the central Pacific. However, American intelligence services had greatly underestimated Japanese troop strength on Saipan. So VAC purchased 30 Canadian Ronson flamethrowers and requested that the Army's Chemical Warfare Service in Hawaii install them in M3 Stuarts, and termed them M3 Satans. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 42 Martin, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. 1 Woodburn S. Kirby, The War Against Japan, vol. On July 9, when Americans declared the battle over, thousands of Saipans 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 islands northern end. Furthermore, many of Saipans citizens were Japanese, and the loss of Saipan marked the first defeat in Japanese territory that had not been added during Japans aggressive expansion by invasion in 1941 and 1942. A hole in the ground provided the only cover. (Records of General Headquarters, Far East Command, Supreme Commander Allied Powers, and United Nations Command, RG 554) At 10 p.m. on March 31, 1944, two Japanese four-engine Kawanishi HSK2 . In 1943, Allied forces began a long series of Pacific battles against the Japanese. Department of War created these lists. The Americans suffered about 13,500 casualties of which 3,500 were deaths. 12 Levine, Pacific War, 121; Kirby, War Against Japan, 432. American personnel in Hawaii ran their final rehearsals in May.3 Unfortunately, the Marines and Army had conducted most of their training separately. 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. Around 24,000 were killed, 5,000 committed suicides, 921 were taken as prisoners of war, and among the 22,000 . Naval History 29,000 casualties: 24,000 KIA. 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. The . 5/9/1945- Okinawa, Japan: Eleven Okinawa civilians who were huddled in this hillside cave were rescued when a passing Marine patrol heard a baby crying. [11] From these latter bases, communications between the Japanese archipelago and Japanese forces to the south and west could be cut. 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. In May, American forces also bombed Marcus and Wake islands, also in the Marianas, to secure the approach to Saipan in June. In the meantime, more information about the article and the author can be found by clicking on the authors name. 3 Gordon L. Rottman, World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002), 378. The list also shows next of kin address. Did you know? 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. 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. 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. Families. A total of 4,311 Japanese troops were killed on the July 7 banzai attack. 3: The Decisive Battles (London: Her Majestys Stationery Office, 1961), 431. Buy electronics, fashion apparel, collectibles, sporting goods, digital cameras, baby items, and everything else from Korean eBay sellers It mentioned the near total loss of all Japanese soldiers and civilians on the island and the use of "human bullets". . Direct 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. 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. RM HN59XJ - PACIFIC WAR During the Battle of Saipan a US Marine finds a family hiding in a hillside cave on 21 June 1944. The weapons used and the tactics of close quarter fighting resulted in high civilian casualties. On July 9, the U.S. flag was raised in victory over Saipan. It cost the Marines 384 dead with 1,961 wounded. 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 first and second battalions of the 105th had nearly been wiped out, with 406 killed and an additional 512 wounded. No further mention of Saipan was made following the final battle on 7 July, which was not initially reported to the public. From Sep 19 to Dec 16, 1944 a long, bloody, drawn-out battle raged through the rugged terrain of the Hrtgen Forest. Three Americans were awarded posthumous Medals of Honor for repelling the relentless assaults. [25] Although Tj agreed to resign, Emporer Hirohito blocked his resignation because he considered Tj to be Japan's strongest war leader. The cost of this campaign was great: over 16,500 casualties, including almost 3,500 killed. Two of the Dela Cruzs daughters died in a bombing. 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. Only those killed in action or died of wounds are listed on the Memorial Wall at [26], The U.S. erected a civilian prisoner encampment on 23 June 1944 that soon had more than 1,000inmates. The news of the 22 February 1941 raid of 427 Amsterdam Jews made a deep impression on the Amsterdam population. All Rights Reserved. Updates? Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. The deadliest battle in WWII, Dnieper, had 1.58 million casualties. Image courtesy of US Navy. Landings continued into the night. Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. Direct GitHub export from English Wikipedia. ), 2223. Ben L. Salomon, Pvt. Casualty List - U.S. Armed Forces - 1944. On 16 July US forces began the bombardment of the nearby island of Tinian as a prelude to the successful Battle of Tinian (24 July-1 August). Interested in participating in the Publishing Partner Program? But after Tj failed to shuffle his Cabinet due to excessive internal hostility, he conceded defeat. The Japanese used many caves in the volcanic landscape to delay the attackers, by hiding during the day and making sorties at night. 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. Over the course of two days a total of 37 warships . We felt that the Americans were God-sent.46, The invasion of Saipan was horrific. ), 39. WWII Army and Army Air Force Casualties. The loss of Saipan stunned the political establishment in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. The bulk of the documents in this collection were produced by the V Amphibious Corps; the 3d, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions; and Task Force 56 during the campaign to capture the island of Iwo Jima, known as Operation Detachment. Each list covers all army personnel who were killed, died, or remained missing between the President's declaration of unilateral emergency on May 27, 1941, and the cut-off date of the report, January 31, 1946. Gus Widhelm of Scouting Eight. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. . It was fought during the Pacific War of World War II, in the seas surrounding the Philippine island of Leyte from 23 October to 26 October 1944 between the Allies and the Empire of Japan. [23][24] 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. for source abbreviations. 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 Tj. 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. USS Princeton on fire, east of Luzon, 24 October 1944. 37, No. [29] 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. Large battle casualty counts are usually impossible to calculate precisely, but few in this list may include somewhat precise numbers. 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 peoples section of the camp, things changed for the young girl: The Chamorro camp seemed to have better accommodations and better food, she attests. 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. Part Japanese military casualties from 1937-1945 have been estimated at 1,834,000, of which 1,740,000 were killed or missing. cit. Buy electronics, fashion apparel, collectibles, sporting goods, digital cameras, baby items, and everything else from Korean eBay sellers ), 37. The 18,000 U.S. Marines sent to read more, The Battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest. Saipan had a significant Japanese civilian population. Goldberg, D-Day, 3. 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. 5 See the oral testimony of Professor Harris Martin, in Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific War, compiled and edited by Bruce M. Petty (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002), 157. Kirby, War Against Japan, 429. . Battleships, destroyers and planes had pounded key targets in pre-assault bombardments, but they had missed many gun emplacements along the beach cliffs. Eventually, troops and their officers reestablished order and proceeded apace. Behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. 3 By Greg Bradsher Enlarge Adm. Mineichi Koga. In response, Japanese aircraft attacked Saipan and Tinian on several occasions between November 1944 and January 1945. Slow progress led to a quarrel between the U.S. Marine commander, General Howlin Mad Holland Smith, and the army divisional commander, but gradually the Japanese were confined in a small area in the north of the island. The battle of Saipan is also tragic for it's huge civilian losses. The battle for Tinian was over in nine days. The Marine Corps suffered over 23,300 casualties. Black-and-white photographs, captured by Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith, show the everyday horrors for the U.S. soldiers fighting Japanese forces on the Mariana Island of Saipan in 1944. 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. Sait made plans for a final suicidal banzai charge. The Battle of Tarawa was fought in the Pacific Theater of World War II from November 20 to November 23, 1943. On 18 June, Saito abandoned the airfield. 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. The calculation of casualties ranges from 1.4 to 3.6 million, including so many . Japanese casualties were extreme an estimated 4,000 dead. hb```f``zAX,;3600ItK?-`` V,ni) 20X0>aLat>t>LKxX2\d`ne`f>9u iF lW>CL7eg`~"X/8 i.qFC ) The American losses were also high. However, Holland Smith had not inspected the terrain over which the 27th was to advance. Combat Art Galleries: Amphibious Operations, Marines in Action, Saipan, 16 June 1944: View of wrecked amphibian tractors (LVT) and other debris on one of the invasion beaches one day after the initial landings (USMC 88365), DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: 20 Years Later, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. 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. 30 Martin, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. ), 2324. It is estimated that between 800 to 1,000 civilians died by suicide during the month-long battle of Saipan. ), 166. 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. "[citation needed] 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: Tj 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. 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. 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). In mid-1944, the next stage in the U.S. plan for the Pacific was to breach Japan's defensive perimeter in the Mariana Islands and build bases there for the new . However, General Douglas MacArthur strenuously objected to any plan that would delay his return to the Philippines. They were using flamethrowers, and my back had been burned. Corrections? The BATTLE OF IWO JIMA: On 19 February 1945, Marines landed on Iwo Jima in what was the largest all-Marine battle in history. 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. . The island became the first B-29 base in the Pacific. The 27th Division of the New York National Guard suffered heavy losses during the World War II battle for the Pacific island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas where the Japanese were determined . Today the sites are a memorial and Japanese people visit to console the victims' souls.[27][28]. In 1998, efforts were re-initiated to secure the Medal of Honor for Gabaldon. The following is a list of the casualties count in battles or offensives in world history.The list includes both sieges (not technically battles but usually yielding similar combat-related or civilian deaths) and civilian casualties during the battles. Skip to main content (Press Enter). 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 Saipans 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. We were close, Lieutenant William VanDusen remembers: Heavier ships were firing over our heads onto the beach. Total U.S. combat casualties in the war against Japan were thus 111,606 dead or missing and another 253,142 wounded. He had been in command of the Japanese naval air forces stationed on the island. 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. There was a rumor at that time that the Japanese were going to throw all the Chamorros in a big hole and kill them. General Yoshitsugo Saito had hoped to win the battle on the beaches but was forced to switch tactics and withdraw with his troops into the rugged interior of Saipan. Specifically, the memorial honors the 24,000 American Marines and soldiers who were killed and wounded recapturing the islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam during the period June 15, 1944, to Aug. 11, 1944. 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, 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 landsabout 30 percent of the islands surfacefeatured dense thickets and even denser grasslands. 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. Holland Smith said: "It was the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive [] it opened the way to the Japanese home islands. The Dutch police used Porsches between 1962 and 1996. After being assured that no harm would come to them, they emerged from their hideout . This contribution has not yet been formally edited by Britannica. cit. Worse still, General Hideki Tojo (1884-1948), Japans militaristic prime minister, had publicly promised that the United States would never take Saipan. After the invasion of Saipan, according to the plan, U.S. forces would quickly move to seize Guam and Tinian. 8: New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944 to August 1944 (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953), 18384. Despite massing the largest invasion fleet to date, the Americans suffered heavy casualties during and after landing on November 20. 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 Saipans 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, 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. Indigenous Civilian Casualties The list of Chamorros and Carolinians who lost their lives as a result of war-related causes from the beginning of American aerial bombardment in Saipan on June 11, 1944, to the closure of civilian camps on July 4, 1946. .