We arrived in Saipan, the largest island of the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The island sits adjacent to the Marianas Trench, the deepest place in
the earth’s oceans where it plummets to almost 11 km. It has been visited 3 times and visits are as
common as visits to the moon. We think
mankind reached the moon before anyone reached the bottom of this trench.
Saipan was the first of the islands to the south of Japan
retaken by US forces and provided the air base for attacks on the islands of
Japan. We had previously visited Okinawa, the site of the bloodiest
battle. This trip is ideal for World War
2 history buffs.
After we cleared US immigration, we went by shuttle into
the main town of Garipan. It was Sunday
and nothing was open when we arrived so after using some internet, we walked to
the American Memorial Park and to a museum at the visitors’ centre.
Chinese investment in Saipan : This hotel goes along with the casino.
Field of Heroes
Most of the key sites are way out of town and there is no
public transport so we engaged a taxi to drive us around. Our driver was excellent and he was a very
effective guide and very considerate of our needs.
We visited the Bird Island Lookout and took some of the
steps down to gain fabulous views of this wildlife sanctuary.
Gail and Rob at Bird Island
We then drove to the Grotto which is located 100 – 200
metres inland. It is possible (with
scuba gear) to swim from the grotto in an underwater tunnel to the ocean but
difficult to find the gap to return. It
is very steep with lots of steps down but our guide knew a great spot with
views overlooking the grotto.
View over the Grotto
After the US forces took control of the island, the last
of the Japanese troops and many local residents kept retreating to the north and believing the propaganda about what
the Americans would do, took their own lives at Suicide Cliff. We drove to the top of the cliff with its
memorials and commanding views over the coast before driving back down where we
could observe the reality of how high and sheer the cliff actually is.
The view from Suicide Cliff looking over the American Memorial
Memorial A mix of Christian, Buddhist and Bomb images
We had an especially interesting visit to the “last
Command Post” of the Japanese where we toured a cliffside bunker and looked at
the old abandoned tanks and guns remaining.
All this was in the shadow of Suicide Cliff.
Gail and Rob at the Last Command
Post
All that remains of a tank from the battle
View to Suicide Cliff from below
We drove past the US memorial to Banzai Cliff on the
coast where many of the Japanese soldiers jumped rather than be captured. There are many memorials to the dead erected
after the war by relatives. It was a
very moving place to visit.
Gail at the cliffs of Banzai
Memorials at Banzai
We drove past some of the large hotel and resort
developments along the coast where the beaches are sheltered by a fringing
reef.
Our major stop was at Pau Pau Beach which is stunningly
beautiful. We had planned to swim and
the weather was certainly right for that but time was such that we just had
time to paddle.
Feet in the water
We drove down the line of beaches back to the town,
purchased some local beers and souvenirs and caught the shuttle back to the
ship (about 15 minutes).
Rob meets the locals
We were back about half an hour before the all aboard and
too late for lunch but went up for pizza, cake and ice cream
View of a wreck taken from our balcony
A yellow submarine The Beatles must
have been inside!
The ship sailed because we had to leave the island during
daylight hours due to the coral fringed channels.
We sailed for Guam but on the way passed Tinian
Island. This was where the Enola Gae
flew from on its bombing raid to Hiroshima.
