The picture above is of Suicide Cliff (from a distance). When the Americans overtook Saipan during WWII, many Japanese soldiers jumped off of this cliff rather than be taken as a prisoner of war.
This picture is of Bonsai Cliff. This is at the northern end of the island. Many Japanese civilians lived on the island of Saipan during WWII. Japanese commanders had distributed much propaganda about American soldiers, telling the people that the Americans were evil and would 'torture prisoners and eat their babies'. As the Americans took the island, the civilians were driven north. The American soldiers did their best to convince the people that they would not come to any harm and that the soldiers would give them much needed food and aid. The civilians were so fearful of being 'captured' by the soldiers that they fled to this area of the island, and rather that be captured, men, women, and children, flung themselves off the cliff to their deaths. Mothers even threw their babies off , before jumping themselves. It was a horrific time and a senseless act. Those who did survive found that the American soldiers did, indeed, give them much needed aid and were not the cruel, heartless monsters that they were led to believe. Some others, including some Japanese soldiers, hid in caves and had to be coerced out by the Americans to be helped.
Here is Cindy at a place called Hidden Beach. It is a beautiful cove on the back side of the island. Alan had found something about this place by searching the internet so we decided to take a drive and see if we could find it and we did! We knew the general direction we needed to go and we got lucky. You have to drive down a dirt road that you almost need a 4-wheel drive to make it down. We drove as far as we could and then walked the last few yards, where we found some old, cement stairs leading down to a trail. We followed the trail and came out at this incredibally beautiful spot! There were shells and coral all over the small beach and the cliffs and rock formations are amazing. The water was pretty rough on this day so we didn't swim or anything but it was awesome to just explore and wtch the waves crash against the rocks!
This was a little area of hidden cove where there was a rope hanging down.(Just around the rock that J.Ward is standing by. J. and Alan used the rope and climbed up to the top of the cliff where they could look down to where we were.
You can't see it very well in this picture, but when the waves would crash into this part of the rock, there is a little blow-hole that water would spray out of. Some of the waves were so big they would crash clear up to the top of the cliffs!
These last two pictures of Heather and Alan were taken at Hidden Beach. I was playing 'photographer' and trying to get some 'artsy' pictures. I think they turned out pretty good!!
Ask Alan about how he REALLY felt posing for this one! :)
The picture above is of Suicide Cliff (from a distance). When the Americans overtook Saipan during WWII, many Japanese soldiers jumped off of this cliff rather than be taken as a prisoner of war.
This picture is of Bonsai Cliff. This is at the northern end of the island. Many Japanese civilians lived on the island of Saipan during WWII. Japanese commanders had distributed much propaganda about American soldiers, telling the people that the Americans were evil and would 'torture prisoners and eat their babies'. As the Americans took the island, the civilians were driven north. The American soldiers did their best to convince the people that they would not come to any harm and that the soldiers would give them much needed food and aid. The civilians were so fearful of being 'captured' by the soldiers that they fled to this area of the island, and rather that be captured, men, women, and children, flung themselves off the cliff to their deaths. Mothers even threw their babies off , before jumping themselves. It was a horrific time and a senseless act. Those who did survive found that the American soldiers did, indeed, give them much needed aid and were not the cruel, heartless monsters that they were led to believe. Some others, including some Japanese soldiers, hid in caves and had to be coerced out by the Americans to be helped.
Here is Cindy at a place called Hidden Beach. It is a beautiful cove on the back side of the island. Alan had found something about this place by searching the internet so we decided to take a drive and see if we could find it and we did! We knew the general direction we needed to go and we got lucky. You have to drive down a dirt road that you almost need a 4-wheel drive to make it down. We drove as far as we could and then walked the last few yards, where we found some old, cement stairs leading down to a trail. We followed the trail and came out at this incredibally beautiful spot! There were shells and coral all over the small beach and the cliffs and rock formations are amazing. The water was pretty rough on this day so we didn't swim or anything but it was awesome to just explore and wtch the waves crash against the rocks!
This was a little area of hidden cove where there was a rope hanging down.(Just around the rock that J.Ward is standing by. J. and Alan used the rope and climbed up to the top of the cliff where they could look down to where we were.
You can't see it very well in this picture, but when the waves would crash into this part of the rock, there is a little blow-hole that water would spray out of. Some of the waves were so big they would crash clear up to the top of the cliffs!
These last two pictures of Heather and Alan were taken at Hidden Beach. I was playing 'photographer' and trying to get some 'artsy' pictures. I think they turned out pretty good!!
Ask Alan about how he REALLY felt posing for this one! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment