In the Battle of Saipan, American soldiers rescue a Japanese baby from Nahuatl Cave on June 28, 1944. The U.S. troops handed the dying infant, who was pulled from under a rock, in a two-handed hug. It was the only child to survive in that cave among hundreds of corpses in a single cave. Cape Naftan is a short peninsula extending south along the east coast of Saipan. Most of the Naftan Peninsula is a cracked ridge, and at the tip of the peninsula is Cape Naftan. The highest point of Mount Naftan in southern Saipan is about 124 meters, and its north and west faces are mostly sheer cliffs. The American invasion pushed a motley crowd of civilians mixed with Japanese troops into the area. Only about 1,050 Japanese troops survived. Japanese soldiers and civilians were fired upon from the coast near the southern tip of the peninsula.
The invasion broke out when American troops from June 15, 1944 landed on the Japanese stronghold of Saipan in the Pacific War. The brutal battle lasted only three weeks and claimed the lives of about 55,000 soldiers and civilians. About 30,000 Japanese soldiers and 30,000 civilians were fatally wounded by American artillery shells, snipers and machine guns. The Japanese soldiers were inexplicably prepared to die themselves, rather than surrender. Of the approximately 71,000 American soldiers who landed, about 3,000 were killed and about 10,000 were wounded in action. Of the approximately 30,000 Japanese troops, about 921 were captured and the rest killed. About 12,000 civilians were killed.
The Japanese hid in ravines, caves, cliffs, hills, and other dugout defenses. In response, the Americans released jets of napalm fire from their flamethrowers. The Japanese forces used civilians as human shields, while the Americans attacked non-combatants and combatants indiscriminately. There was no longer any distinction between military and civilians; on June 21, 1944, American reconnaissance found and rescued a Japanese family hiding in a cave on Saipan. The Japanese women and children were driven to commit suicide by jumping from a Saipan promontory, and the Japanese mainland gave the highest praise to mass suicide. They jumped to their deaths from Banzai Cliff (Cape Mappi) in the northernmost part of Saipan and from Cape Naftan in the south. On July 6, in the last order of the Banzai assault, some 3,000 men, including the wounded, were annihilated; on July 9, the sweep of Saipan was complete.
