In the Battle of Saipan in the Pacific War, the corpses of many Japanese soldiers who were killed in one fell swoop on June 25, 1944, lay scattered just in front of the caterpillars of a huge, powerful American tank. By that time, the General Staff in Tokyo had already decided to abandon and annihilate the island of Saipan. Unaware that they would be abandoned and annihilated, Japanese soldiers were massively abused and massacred as they charged at the American forces.
The U.S. Army landed on Saipan Island on June 15, 1944, and from June 19 to 20, 1944, the Battle of Leyte off the Marianas and Palau Islands broke out between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy, with the Imperial Japanese Navy suffering heavy losses of about three aircraft carriers and 395 fighter planes. Then, cut off from supplies and reinforcements and cornered, the Japanese forces hid in a cluster of caves scattered around Mount Tapocho in the heart of the mountainous region north of Saipan. The rest of the mountainous area was open farmland, planted with sugar cane and inhabited by residents. Even more unfortunate families could not enter the caves and holes to hide. The trapped Japanese soldiers and about 10,000 Saipan residents were trapped in the northern part of Saipan. Holed up in crude trenches, the Japanese soldiers were massively abused and massacred, with American soldiers furiously firing artillery, throwing grenades and other weapons, and violently sweeping in with machine guns and flamethrowers.
In the early morning hours of July 7, thousands of Japanese troops attacked the American forces in a last desperate Banzai charge. On July 9, American forces completely occupied Saipan. In the days that followed, American soldiers could only watch helplessly as hundreds of Japanese civilians committed mass suicide by jumping from the cliffs north of Saipan. The casualty toll on Saipan was about 41,244 of all Japanese soldiers massacred, with only about 1,000 surviving to become prisoners of war. About 3,441 American soldiers were killed in action and about 13,000 were wounded in battle. The U.S. forces sent B-29 bombers to and from Saipan Island within range of the Japanese mainland.
