"Saipan" - by Bruce M. Petty

Amazon: The battle for Saipan is remembered as one of the bloodiest battles fought in the Pacific during World War II, and was the turning point on the road to the defeat of Japan and the end of the war. The island was a blaze of fire and steel for over three weeks in the summer of 1944. Visible reminders of the devastation still exist-one can find human remains scattered on the jungle floor or in caves throughout the island. Emotional reminders still exist as well, for both the soldiers and the civilians who survived the battle. In this work, the survivors of Saipan-including Pacific Islanders on whose land the Americans and Japanese fought their war-have the opportunity to tell their stories in their own words. The author introduces the volume with a history of Saipan and arranges the oral histories by location: Saipan, Yap and Tinian, Rota, Palau Islands, and Guam.