US Marine discovers a near-dead baby in a cave in the jungle of Saipan island, 1944

In a photo that somehow comprises both tenderness and horror, an American Marine cradles a near-dead infant pulled from under a rock while troops cleared Japanese fighters and civilians from caves on Saipan in the summer of 1944.

The child was the only person found alive among hundreds of corpses in one cave.

The battle for the Pacific island of Saipan during World War II is one of those well-remembered battles between Japan and America, one made worse by the mass suicide of local Japanese civilians who jumped off cliffs, fearful of capture by the Americans.

This is what has been called “war without mercy” – battles supercharged by racial stereotypes about the enemy. Japanese soldiers hid out in the thick shrub on the island long after the battle ended, refusing to give up and attacking US troops stationed on the island.

One sizeable group led by Captain Oba only surrendered in December 1945 when the war was long over.

1,000 Japanese civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle by fears such as American mutilation of Japanese war dead.

Some Japanese people living beside the cliff jumped from places that were later named Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff.

These would become part of the National Historic Landmark District as Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, designated in 1985.

Today the sites are a memorial and Japanese people visit to console the victim’s souls.

Comments

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.

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After the end of world war 2,this letter was found in nazi concentration.

After the end of world war 2,this letter was found in nazi concentration camp,which contains following message adressing the teachers. Dear Teacher, I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education. My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated illeterates. Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane. Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years.

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years. Montgomery was the first female prisoner to be executed in by the US government since 1953. Montgomery, 52, was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital. The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay. Challenges were fought across multiple federal courts on whether to allow the execution of Montgomery, 52, who was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate in the Justice Department`s execution chamber at its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after overturning a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kelley Henry, Montgomery`s lawyer, called the execution "vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power." ...

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