Saipan: A brief history and tour guide available at MarianasHistory.com

SAIPAN: A Brief History and Tour Guide:

Hard paper, laminated full color cover with 94 pages glossy printed pages, featuring 210 photographs and maps in black and white and color, this booklet reviews the history of the island of Saipan from its geologic formation to the present day.

From the author...
It was not long after the publication of Tinian; a brief history, that the people of Saipan began to clamor for a book about their island. It turned out to be a story of local political intrigue, punctuated by the effects of three foreign wars.

Saipan, as with the other Mariana Islands, was first inhabited some 3,500 years ago. The people evolved, developing a unique language and culture, and reached a population of more than 40,000 by the time Magellan arrived in 1521. By 1700, Saipan and all the other Mariana islands except Guam and Rota had been completely depopulated and the total Chamorro population was reduced to just 3,700.

The island was not repopulated until the arrival of group of Carolinian migrants arrived in the early 1800s. They established the village of Arabwal, now known as Garapan. In the 1820’s, the Spanish Governor of the Marianas appointed the first official mayor of Saipan. Guam-born Chamorros or their descendants began moving to Saipan. By the end of the 19th Century, the center of population on Saipan remained the town of Garapan. Tinian Carolinians re-settled the village of Tanapag after Tinian was depopulated again by the Spanish administration. Other Carolinians returning from the Northern Islands established other villages on Saipan.

The Americans capture of Guam in 1898 partitioned the Marianas. This allowed Germany to purchase the islands, immediately creating a problem for the American War Planning Department.

The outbreak of World War I cut short the German administration, leaving little behind to mark their fleeting presence. Japan quickly occupied all of German Micronesia. Saipan in the Marianas was a great catch for the Japanese. It had a functional sea port only 100 miles north of Guam and connected the trading route from Japan south to Australia.

The Japanese naval administration was replaced with a civilian administration in 1922, the Nanyo-cho. In the mid-1920’s Japan established sugar as the economic base of the Marianas. Large numbers of Okinawans and Koreans migrated to the islands to grow the cane for the factories. The population of Saipan grew from 2,500 in 1912 to 23,572 by 1935. Again, international events were to change the course of Saipan’s history.

In 1937, Tojo lead his armies into China, and the Japanese Navy began fortifying its bases in the Marianas. Preparations were underway for a contest between Japan and the United States for control of the Pacific.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. It would have resulted only in a Pacific war, had not Hitler decided to declare war on the United States just two days later, creating a two-ocean war for the United States.

Despite the loss of their Pacific battle fleet at Pearl Harbor, the United States was able to recover, rebuild their fleet and assume the offensive by 1943. The United States Army controlled the initiative of war at that time, and began plans for the invasion of Japan, considered the necessary and ultimate end of any war. The Navy supported the Army Air Forces command in the concept that the war could be won from the air if the Navy could capture the Marianas and build the bases necessary to supply and launch a fleet of B-29 Superfortresses. The capture of Saipan and the rest of the Marianas was the strategic victory of the Pacific war.

The Navy delivered two divisions of Marines and one Army National Guard division to Saipan. Then the Navy delivered several battalions of Seabees to build the bases. They were not even finished when the first squadron of Superforts arrived at the newly named Isley Field on Saipan. Joined by other members of the XXth Air Force based on Tinian and Guam, the B-29’s knocked the Japanese to their knees. The atom bombs launched from neighboring Tinian were the knock out blow. They forced Emperor Hirohito to surrender unconditionally. The war was won from the air and millions of lives were saved from what would have been a bloodbath on the shores of Japan.

After the war, U.S. Naval Civil Affairs managed the islands until 1947 when the Marianas became part of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific, administered by the Department of the Interior. They remained in this questionable political status until 1971 when they received permission from the United Nations to seek a political status with the United States, separate from the rest of Micronesia.

In January 1978, the first government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, in political union with the United States, was inaugurated. Saipan grew quickly as a result of the opening of foreign investment under the permanent protection of the American flag. Saipan continues to be the capitol of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

SAIPAN: A Brief History and Tour Guide:

Hard paper, laminated full color cover with 94 pages glossy printed pages, featuring 210 photographs and maps in black and white and color, this booklet reviews the history of the island of Saipan from its geologic formation to the present day.