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The Marianas were unique in that they were divided beteen the United States and Japan before World war II. The Americans obrained Guam from Spain as a result of the Spanish-merican War (1898). The Japanese seized Sipan and Tinian from Germany during World war I (1914-18). Durng the inter-War era by international agreement, the islands were not to be fortified. The Japanese began to militaize their islands, the United States did not. Japan immediately after Pearl Harbor seized Guam which had only a small Marine detachment with small arms (Scember 1941). Later in the War, the Marianas became a major battlefield of the War. The Navy's Central Pacific campaign was unopposed by the Imperial Fleet. The Japanese hoped that fortified islands could resist amphibious invasions without the Fleet intervening. After the Ameicans took the Marshalls, Gilberts, and Carolines, it was clear that they could not. For the Japanese the stakes were very high. The Marianas brought the Japanese Home Islands within range of the new B-29 bombers. So when the American landings on the Marianas began, the Imperail Fleet did intervene, setting up one of the climatic battles of the Pacific War--the Battle of the Phillipine Sea (1944). As the Marine and Army troops were going ashore, the B-29 bombers were coming off the assembly line at American aircraft plants.
The Marianas is an important Micronesia archepeligo in the central Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east. The Northern Marianas consists of 14 tropical islands stretching across 400 miles. They are adjacent to the Marianas trench which is the deepest point in the ocean. The islands are volcanic formations, in fact the summits of volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific. Saipan is the most populated island in the group. Tinian is a smaller island near Saipan. Rota to the south is much less developed. The southern-most island is Guam. The war developed somewhat differently on the islands because Guam was separated from what became known as the Northern Marianasa (Rota, Saipan, and Tinian). The other islands are much smaller and of lesser importance.
The Marianas is an important archepeligo in rhe central Pacific. The Northern Marianas consists of 14 tropical islands stretching across 400 miles. They are adjacent to the Marianas trench which is the deepest point in the ocean. Saipan is the most populated island in the group. Rota is much less developed. The Northern Marianas were settled around 1500 BC by Chamorros who have cultural ties with the indigenous people on Guam. Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to discover the islands (1521). He named them the Islas de los Ladrones (Islands of Thieves) because of his experiences with the Chamoros. Spanish Jesuit Luis Diego Sanvitores renamed the islands Las Marianas in honor of the Spanish queen Maria Ana of Austria (1668). He and five other priests established a mission in the Marianas. The Spanish effort to Christanize and control the islands set off two decades of often brutal hostilities between the Spanish and the Chamorros who violently resisted them. The Spanish had to commit a substantial military force to gain control of the islands. Because of lingering resistance, the Spanish rounded up most of the the Chamoros on Saipan and trasported them to Guam. The Spanish had more trouble doing this on Rota where most of the Chamoros managed to hide in the island's caves and mountains. The Spanish permitted Caroline islabders to move to Marianas where they tended cattle for the Spanish. Pope Leo XIII confirmed Spanish sovereignty over the Marianas (1885). Spain began encouraging the Chamoros on Guam to move to the Northern Marianas. The Guam Chamoros were now throughly Hispanicized. The Spanish saw a larger Chanoro population on Saipan and other islands in the Northern Marianas as a way of strengthening Spanish control. The Carolinians had by that time settled much of the most productive coastal areas. The United States seized the Philippine Islands and Guam during the Spanish-American War (1898). The Spanisg decided that there was not benefit in having the Northern Marianasa. The decided to seel the islands to Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm II at the time was building a new high seas navy and anxious to acquire colonies. The Northern Marianas and other Pacific Islands acquired by the Germans provided useful facilities for the new German Navy. The Germans also hoped to develop copra production.
The Spanish American War was primarily fought over Cuba. Insurgents on Cuba had been fighting the Spanisg for decadeds. American newspapers picked up on the struggle and began running lurid articles about Spanish colonial opression. When the USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor, the newspapers blamed the Spanish. With the outbreak of war, the U.S. Navy engaged Spanish squadrons in both the Atlantic and Caribbean. The major Atlantic sea battle occurred off Santiago, Cuba. The United States also attacked Spanish possessions in the Pacific. This primarily meant the Philippine Islands. The U.S. Navy destroyed the Spanish Pacific squadron in Manila Bay. In the peace settlement, the Americans also obtained Guam. These possessions along with the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands made the United States a Pacific power.
Japan had a Naval Alliance with Britain. When World War I broke out in Europe, the Japanese entered the War on the Allied side. The British were at first surprised at the Japanese eagerness to enter the War. Japanese officials saw some advantages to be gained from the War, particularly the opportunity of seizing German colonies. This was helpful to the British because it allowed the Royal Navy to maintain only a small squadron in the Pacific to deal with the Germans. Japanese, British, and Dominion forces seized the German outposts. The World War I settlment assigned the northern colonies to Japan and the southern colonies to Australia. The Japanese thus acquired the Northern Marianas (Rota, Saipan and Tinian). The Ameicans continued to control Guam to the south. The islands were not to be fortified. The Japanese began to militaize their islands, the United States did not.
The Japanese saw the Northern Marianas as useful both militarily as well as an economic assett. The Marianas served as useful air and naval bases to build a shield around Japan. Economically the Japanese were particularly interested in sugar cane. They proceed in clearing groves of coconut palms planted by the Chomoros as well asand tropical forests. This included many ancient latte stones important to the Chamoros. Large numbers of Japanese civilians were brought in to develop the economy. This proved an economic success. The Marianas sugar cane operations were producing 60 percent of the revenues the Japanese were generated in Micronesia. The Japanese also changed the Northern Marianas demographically. When the Japanese acquired the islands, there were about 4,000 Chamorros. The Japanese population when the War began was 45,000, mostly immigrant workers. The Marianas thus became essentially Japanese islands. The Japanese recreated the islands amd thgus life there became similar to that on Japan itself. Schools were opened for the Japanese children.
Japan immediately after Pearl Harbor seized Guam which had only a small Marine detachment with small arms (December 1941). American authorities concluded based in part on decoded Japanese diplomatic messages that Japan was preparing to declare war and strike and American and British possessions in the Pacific. The military assessment was that the strike would come in the eastern Pacific and not Pearl Harbor which was considered too stringly defended. The Navy did not believe thar lightly defended Guam could be sucessfully defended if the Japanese struck, as was likely at the outbreak of war. Strong Japanese forces existed in the Nothern Marianas. The Navy began evacuating the civilian dependents of the American personnel OOctober 17). At the time of Pearl Harbor only one deoendant was left on the Guam. The Navy ordered Guam's military governor, US Navy Captain George J. McMillin, to destroy all classified materials except those vital for options (December 4). Cpt. McMillin did so (Devember 6). The following day the Japanese unexopectedly struck Peal Harbor, largely imobilizing the Pacific Fleet (December 7). This was the omly force capable of defending Guam. With their success at Pearl Harbor, the outcome on Guam was inevitable. The American defence was only 274 sailors and 153 marines along with 100 Chamorros of the Home Guard. There were no heavy weapons. Japananese air strikes began (December 8). A 5,500 man Japanese invasion force began landing at 2 am in the morning (December 10).
The Japanese renamed Guam "Omiya Jima". Unlike Saipan to the north, there was no Japanese population on Guam, but a substantial Chomoro population of about 22,000 suffered under the brutal Japanese occupation. Guam was the only American terruitory with civilians occupied by Japan during the War. The Japanese also occupied two Aleutian Islands (Attu and Kiska), but the civilians had been evacuated. Japan was administered by the Japanese military. In Sumay, which was the island's commercial center, all of the 2,000 residents were evicted from their homes. Some, however, were given permission to dismantle their homes The Chamorros wre forced to endured 32 months of Japanese occupation. Japanese occupation of Guam proved especially brutal, even by Japanese standards. There were various reasons for this. Not only were the Japanese occupying American territory, but the Chamorros remained loyal to the Americans. Some Chamorros had defied the Japanese and hid American sailors attempting to evade capture. The Japanese permitted a degree of religious practice and business activities. Children's attendance was mandatory at occupation era schools, but of 5,000 children attending pre-war American schools, only 600 Chamorro children attended the schools opened by the Japanese. [Palomo] There were, however, numerous attricities committed by both officers acting in official capcity and poorly supervised military personnel. There were grenade slaughters and rapes. The 29th Division of Japan's Kwantung Army set up concentration camps. The Japanese executed 600 Chamorro's for various infractions. Some were beheaded. The Japanese were incensed when they learned of the 3-year effort by Chamorro's to hide and care for U.S. Navy radioman George Tweed. Japanese brutality increased as they began to prepare for invasion. The Japanese conscripted Chamorros for forced labor to building defenses and runways. Others were put to slave labor in rice paddies. Rice paddied did not exist on Guam before the War, but the Japanese ocuupiers wanted rice to eat. So they set up paddies at Piti, Inarajan and Merizo. They forced the Chamorros to work them. [Palomo] When American ships and planes appeared, Japanese barbarities on the Chamorros only escalated.
The Marianas proved to be among the bloodiest battlegrounds of the Pacific War. The Navy's Central Pacific campaign was unopposed by the Imperial Fleet. The Japanese hoped that fortified islands could resist amphibious invasions without the Fleet intervening. After the Ameicans took the Marshalls, Gilberts, and reduced the Carolines by carrier strike, it was clear that they could not. For the Japanese the stakes were very high. The Marianasa were Closer to the Home Islands than the rest of Micronesia. The Islands were thus key to Japan's defensive perimeter and to the American Pacific strategy. The strategic bombing campaign was intially to be conducted from China. A japanese offensive there and the realization that the Marianasa would simplify the supply problem changed that. The Marianas brought the Japanese Home Islands within range of the new B-29 bombers. So when the American landings on the Marianas began with the invasion of Saipan, the Imperail Fleet did intervene, setting up one of the climatic battles of the Pacific War--the Battle of the Phillipine Sea (1944). The Japanese fleet air arm was destroyed as a capable force. After the defeat of the Imperial Fleet carriers and the fighting on Saipan reached the mopping up phase, the United States invaded Guam (July 20). The fierce fighting on Saipan and Guam resulted in nearly 40,000 killed. The Japanese garisons fought to the death and many of the civilias committed syuiside.
As the Marine and Army troops were going ashore, the B-29 bombers were coming off the assembly line at American aircraft plants.
The U.S. Navy Central Pacifiv campaign solved the baseing and supply problems for the U.S. Arny Air Forces. The seizure of the Marianas opened new possibilities for the strategic bombing campaign (June-July 1944). The islands (Guam, Saipan, Tinian) provided sites for airfields that were within range of the Home Islands. And not originally planned for strategic bombing campaign, the Marianas had significant advantages over China. It was a lot easier to seize an island, no matter how well garisoned than advance armies into central China and ebgage large Japanese forces. In addition, the Marianasa were a straight supply run from San Franciso and other West Coast ports, eliminating the logistical nightmare of getting the vast supplies needed to China. The Air Force rushed to complete the large airfields needed by the B-29s and to deploy the planes and crews to the islands. The first raid from the south was 88 B-29s that struck Tokyo (November 24, 1944). The dropped bombs from about 30,000 feet (10,000 m). The post-bombing assessment suggested that only about 10 percent of the bombs hit their targets. The 20th Air Force was reassigned to the XXI Bomber Command. Under the command of Curtis LeMay, they organized a much more effective bombing campaign. Flying from the Marianas (ptimarily Guam and Tinian) the B-29s were within range of the Home Islands and able to carry a full bomb loads. The campaign was given great priority. The Bomber Commands did not report to the theater commanders (MaxArthur and Nimityz), but rather directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the peack of operation, they were placed under the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, commanded by General Carl Spaatz (March 1945). The Americans as in Europe tried daylight precision bombing using high explosive bombs. The results were ineffective. The hight winds over the Islands (the Jet Stream) disrupted the trajectory of bombs dropped from high alditude which meant that targets were not struck. The B-29 was built for higg altiutude operations and this was preferred because it was above the effective height of Japanese air defenses. General LeMay, commanding the XXI Bomber Command, decided to cg=hnge tactics. He switched to low altitude raids (about 2,100 meters) dropping incendiary bombs. The lower altitude improved accuracy and the indendiaries meant that specific targets did not have to be accurately hit, they would be destroyed in the huge conflgratiins of Japanese cities. The speed of te B-29s proved suffucent to protect the raiders. The raids focused on the major urban centers of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. The early raids using this method were only moderately successful, but results stradily improved. There were also daylight raids on particularly important trgets.
Guam, Saipan, and Tinian were heavily damaged during the fighting. Rota which was bypassed experienced only minor damage. The important sugar cane industry was desestated. The United Nations made the Marianas a department of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (1947). The United States received the exclusive rights to administer the islands and to establish and maintain military bases.
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