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It was his son’s curiosity that whetted his appetite to gather more details about what had happened to them on Saipan, those weeks they faced their fears as they claimed the island from Japanese military stranglehold. Mark Leary Matthews was in his 30s when he asked his father, WWII veteran Carl Matthews, how come they…
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Anna is author of a book titled, “Ocho Ocho: My Childhood In War-torn Asia” published in 2012, which talks about her childhood memories, the years the Bucher family spent in China and the Philippines. In her prefatory message, she notes that her then five-year-old granddaughter Mattea asked her to share a story about her childhood…
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STAFF Sergeant Raymond Hagley, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, left his family a legacy of rare color Kodachrome slides. Little did his son Greg know that he would be getting these rare WWII color photographs—about a dozen of them. His father Ray arrived on Saipan as part of the advanced deployment of the 73rd Bombardment Wing in the…
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The surrender of 1,500 soldiers and civilians and soldiers on Saipan in 1944 was attributed to WWII veteran Guy Gabaldon, who convinced hundreds to lay down their arms and capitulate to the Americans. Guy, the “Pied Piper of Saipan,” was recommended for a Medal of Honor. He received a Navy Cross. He was 17 when…
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In an interview with this reporter on the Fourth of July in 2012, she said, many of her contemporaries had passed away and she was grateful to be around still. For Jean, she did not know of any other WWII female veteran still living. With four brothers in the military, she wanted to experience what…
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A musician and former Los Angeles Times proofreader returned to Saipan on Feb. 4, 2014, and was honored for his service in the Battle of Saipan. Lloyd Coulson Glick served on the USS North Carolina that bombarded Saipan along with the Fifth Fleet during WWII. He arrived aboard the cruise ship Crystal Serenity that pulled…
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Long after Captain Oba Sakae had surrendered to the American forces on Saipan, a paratrooper stayed behind several more months and survived on eating snails in the jungle. Japanese veteran Yoshio Ideguchi, through translators, Kyodo News reporters Eiichiro Ishiyama and Makoto Hori, said he hid in the jungles until July 1945. For Ideguchi, the announcement…
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A former Imperial Army soldier has vowed to keep coming back to Saipan to pray for those who perished in the brutal Battle of Saipan. Private First Class Teruki Okazaki, a former Imperial Japanese Army heavy artillery unit soldier, came to Saipan in June 2014 to participate in the commemoration of the 70th year of…
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Huddled together in a cramped cave during the Battle of Saipan, they wept to slake their thirst. In an interview back in 2011, Tan Escolastica Tudela Cabrera said they were out of food and water inside the cave in 1944. For 19 days their family lived inside the cave as Saipan was in the midst…
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It was one dinner she couldn’t forget, and not because the meal itself was extraordinary. It was their last time to eat together as a family. Ten-year-old Kimiko Nishikawa could feel the seriousness of the situation. Although she could barely understand Japanese, she knew the anguished plea of her father for them to love one another, love others…