A young doctor, hearing about this chaplain, said, “That man probably saved more young lives from dying of shock than will ever be known.”
Watercolor by SSgt John Fabion, Marine Corps Art Collection.
The Saipan cemetery was dedicated after the battle.
D+24, 9 July
It was to be the final day of a long, grueling campaign. The 6th and 8th Marines came down from the hills to the last western beaches, while the 4th Marine Division, with the 2d Marines attached, reached Marpi Point, the northern end of the island.
There a final drama of horror was played out. Lieutenant Colonel Chambers watched, amazed:
During this day as we moved along the cliffs and caves, we uncovered civilians all the time. The Jap soldiers would not surrender, and would not permit the civilians to surrender. I saw with my own eyes women, some carrying children, come out of the caves and start toward our lines. They’d be shot down by their own people. I watched any number of women carrying children come down to the cliffs that dropped to the ocean.
They were very steep, very precipitous. The women would come down and throw the children into the ocean and jump in and commit suicide. I watched one group at a distance of perhaps 100 yards, about eight or ten civilian men, women and children get into a little huddle and blow themselves up.... It was a sad and terrible thing, and yet I presume quite consistent with the Japanese rules of Bushido.
Lieutenant Stott in that same division witnessed other unbelievable forms of self-destruction: