The Battle of Saipan: The History and Legacy of the Pacific D-Day

Just over one week after the landings in Normandy, American troops took part in a massive amphibious invasion of Saipan, but intense public interest in operations in Europe meant that this invasion received less media coverage at the time, and it has been the subject of far less interest from historians and writers since. Part of the reason seems to be the different perception of the war in the Pacific. During the war in Europe, Allied troops were, for the most part, welcomed as liberators by the inhabitants of the countries they occupied. Combat was generally conducted according to the accepted rules of war, with troops who surrendered becoming prisoners of war.

In the Pacific Theater, combat was very different. The clash between American and Japanese troops was not just a battle between two modern nations; it was a conflict between two very different cultures and ideologies. Many Japanese soldiers fought according to the tenets of Bushido, the ancient warrior code first employed by the Samurai. This held that death was infinitely preferable to surrender, and that suicide was regarded as a legitimate and even praiseworthy act. The Japanese soldiers who did surrender were regarded with contempt, and enemy soldiers who fell into Japanese hands were treated with extreme cruelty. To American soldiers, the Japanese troops they encountered seemed to fight with fanatical zeal.

As a result, the fighting on Saipan was bloody and intense. Although the battle lasted less than one month, almost 50,000 soldiers died or became casualties on the island, and many Japanese soldiers chose death, either through suicide or assaults on the enemy that had no real prospect of success. Civilians also suffered horrendous casualties on Saipan - more than 20,000 died, with many committing suicide rather than becoming prisoners of the Americans.