Believing years of their government’s propaganda many Japanese civilians on the island of Saipan choose to commit suicide rather than surrender to the invading American soldiers. In all, it is believed 22,000 civilians and soldiers either jumped (or were pushed) from the Suicide Cliff after it was clear the Allies had won the battle.

There are many reports of how these civilians found their end and the selected method varied according to eye witness accounts. When it came to entire families that chose to jump, they were lined up from eldest to youngest and in turn pushed each other off the Suicide Cliff. In other reports soldiers say they saw other families and soldiers simply waded into the ocean to drown (or watched mothers and fathers drowned their children before themselves). Then there were those who found the discarded weapons of Imperial soldiers, such as grenades, which they held to their chest and pulled the pin. One war correspondent for Time recalled a mother doing such an act with her infant in her arms when she couldn’t get to the cliff.

For many this was an ominous sign of what was to come, the Japanese’s loss of Saipan was a clear indicator the war was nearly lost and an invasion of mainland Japan was on the horizon. The Allied high command had proof of something they feared the most: If the Japanese government could have its citizens commit suicide instead of surrender, what would the outcome be if they gave them weapons and demand them to defend their land to their last breath?

November 08, 2011, 12:31am