We were heading off on a raid with four hand grenades that had been given to us – Pursued to the shores of the ocean where the bodies of suicide victims floated –
● We were heading off on a raid with four hand grenades that had been given to us
- Pursued to the shores of the ocean where the bodies of suicide victims floated -
Witness: Kensei Kamiunten (13上運天賢盛)
Date of birth: December 1, 1931
Place of birth: Saipan
Age at the time: 14 years old
■ What was it like when the US armed forces landed on Saipan?
Saipan was a pastoral, agricultural setting and very peaceful until the Japanese armed forces landed. The atmosphere became strange about midway through the year of 1943, and by the time New Year's Day arrived in 1944, many Japanese soldiers had arrived, some with no firearms. The school buildings were all converted into military barracks, and the situation was such that we were no longer able to study.
■ First sight of American soldiers
I saw flares going up with a bang. They shot up one after another with a bang, and the place became bright, as if it was midday. It was so bright that we could not move. We relocated during short intervals of about one minute, as each of those flares fell down. We could hear the sound of a flare going up, whistling its way up and then "bang" and that was when we all laid flat on the ground and did not move. It would again take about a minute for the next flare to fall down, so we moved as soon as the flare hit the ground. The situation was just like that, and it honestly took us about an hour to walk one kilometer.
By 10 o'clock the next day, some people were shouting "It's terrible. Run for it!" in a strange voice. Then I saw two tanks and a number of American soldiers heading our way, forming a row, about 500 to 600 meters away.
The Japanese soldiers we saw in front of us had a leg or both feet blown off. One of them took out a hand grenade and I had no idea what that hand grenade was. A Japanese soldier who happened to be near me shouted "Get down!" and pushed me aside. I had seen a hand grenade before, but I had no idea what could happen when a hand grenade is produced, when the pin is pulled and it blows up. When I was pushed aside and fell flat on the ground, I heard the bang of an explosion. It turned out that the wounded Japanese soldier I saw in front of me took his own life with that hand grenade. When I think back about it now, I wonder why he decided to take his own life right there instead of going somewhere else on his own because there were civilians around him. Then just in front of the soldier who chose to take his own life, just in front of him... about this far from me... I saw my uncle there and he was sitting, about as far away from me as you are now. His stomach was split open, blown open by that hand grenade. He did not say anything and just fell over towards me. My cousin was right near my uncle, and he was really shocked and started to cry. There were two aunts there, and they decided to run away. The soldier that pushed me over told me that it was dangerous there. He said we must run away because there would be more soldiers committing suicide, and he pushed us out and then I suddenly realized that the two of us were running into a sugar cane field.
■ Children also recruited for raid
Now that I think about it, I remember that the name of the place was Tehada. When we got that far, some Japanese soldiers were rounding up the men who could move and basically took all the males who were not with family. It didn’t matter if they were children or grown-ups; they just rounded all of us up, and then I was given four hand grenades. I saw grown-ups being handed six each. They told us that there was a base with US armed forces in the direction of Matansha, so we were to go on a raid.
A lance corporal took the lead and became the commander of the group, seconded by a private first class. There were two Japanese soldiers and perhaps two grown-ups, although I am not sure if they were from Okinawa or not, and then there were four children including us. So I think there were six of us altogether, and with the soldiers we were a group of eight people. I was then taught how to use a hand grenade for the first time. I was instructed to pull the safety pin before hitting the grenade on a rock. I was told it would explode in four seconds, so once I hit it I should count 1, 2, 3 and throw it. We were taught that way and we even did some preparatory exercises before starting off on the raid."
"So we started off but before we even walked 50 meters, we encountered a young Japanese officer, a lieutenant. The young lieutenant came up to us and asked, "Where do you think you are going?" Our lance corporal told him "We are going on a raid by the order of Lieutenant General, such and such" he said. The lieutenant then said "There is no such order." The commander was asked "Who conveyed that order?" and he responded "Our commander, such and such." The lieutenant said, "War must be left to soldiers, and it does not involve children. You must go home" he said. But the lance corporal said "But it is an order," nevertheless the Lieutenant said "There is no such order that calls for children to participate in the war. So give up those hand grenades" he said, and they took all of the hand grenades away from us. We were told that the lance corporal, the private first class and the young Lieutenant "will now go on a raid just the three of us, so you lot go home."
■ Hellish battlefield witnessed during journey of escape by children alone
All the children were split up, leaving just the two of us, myself and my cousin. We ran to the mountains and then to the sea, we just ran all over the place trying to escape.
We started to see the sun quite a bit by the time it was four o'clock. The sun was tilting quite a bit toward the west. Naval gunfire ceased around that time. When the naval gunfire ceased, I noticed there were children, probably the grandchildren of the old lady, the oldest being about four and the younger ones were just able to walk, three children in total. The grandmother came out to the three children, I think they were her grandchildren, but I could not see their parents anywhere. The grandmother took up a sickle and told her grandchildren to close their eyes. I was a bit far away, so I could not see clearly what went on, I was probably not quite 15 meters away but perhaps a little over 10 meters. Then this grandmother started slicing throats of her grandchildren and started tossing them off the cliff. I was shocked. My cousin saw all that and started crying again, but I did not know what to do. While all this was going on, the grandmother also cut her own throat with the sickle and jumped off the cliff.
This was the place where many dead bodies had washed up. There were so many dead bodies slightly off the rocky shore they were like driftwood floating. Some were stranded on the rocks. These were not only grown-ups, but were many small children.
"As we walked around the bottom of the cliff, some person jumped off the cliff above us, and this occurred on two occasions. They jumped when the wave was receding revealing all the rocks so that they would hit the cliff wall or the rocks and die, almost instantly probably. If they jumped while the wave was onshore though, they would possibly not die right away. There were tanks, US armed forces, perhaps just 20 meters from the coastline, waiting. The tanks drove to about five meters from the shore and picked up those people who had just jumped. When I saw the recesses of the rocks on the other side, I saw some Japanese soldiers hiding. The Japanese armed forces did not embark on any counterattacks at all. The people walking around to the left and right, and the people who committed suicide by jumping, were all civilians; none appeared to be soldiers of the Japanese armed forces. They were all civilians."
We spent the day like that. At daybreak when the sun was shining quite brightly, I began daydreaming. The American armed forces started calling to people with their loudspeakers on the mountain side, and as I was looking I saw many refugees climbing up in droves. I saw the figure of my mother from behind the rows of people, and I said to myself, "that's mother" and I jumped up and started running. When I got to that area, an American soldier helped me up with his hand. He offered me water right away. I hesitated because I thought this American soldier might have poisoned this water, so I did not want to drink it right away. Once he saw me hesitate like that the American soldier had a sip for himself. When I saw that I thought that there was no poison in there, so I gulped down a lot of water."
- Pursued to the shores of the ocean where the bodies of suicide victims floated -
Witness: Kensei Kamiunten (13上運天賢盛)
Date of birth: December 1, 1931
Place of birth: Saipan
Age at the time: 14 years old
■ What was it like when the US armed forces landed on Saipan?
Saipan was a pastoral, agricultural setting and very peaceful until the Japanese armed forces landed. The atmosphere became strange about midway through the year of 1943, and by the time New Year's Day arrived in 1944, many Japanese soldiers had arrived, some with no firearms. The school buildings were all converted into military barracks, and the situation was such that we were no longer able to study.
■ First sight of American soldiers
I saw flares going up with a bang. They shot up one after another with a bang, and the place became bright, as if it was midday. It was so bright that we could not move. We relocated during short intervals of about one minute, as each of those flares fell down. We could hear the sound of a flare going up, whistling its way up and then "bang" and that was when we all laid flat on the ground and did not move. It would again take about a minute for the next flare to fall down, so we moved as soon as the flare hit the ground. The situation was just like that, and it honestly took us about an hour to walk one kilometer.
By 10 o'clock the next day, some people were shouting "It's terrible. Run for it!" in a strange voice. Then I saw two tanks and a number of American soldiers heading our way, forming a row, about 500 to 600 meters away.
The Japanese soldiers we saw in front of us had a leg or both feet blown off. One of them took out a hand grenade and I had no idea what that hand grenade was. A Japanese soldier who happened to be near me shouted "Get down!" and pushed me aside. I had seen a hand grenade before, but I had no idea what could happen when a hand grenade is produced, when the pin is pulled and it blows up. When I was pushed aside and fell flat on the ground, I heard the bang of an explosion. It turned out that the wounded Japanese soldier I saw in front of me took his own life with that hand grenade. When I think back about it now, I wonder why he decided to take his own life right there instead of going somewhere else on his own because there were civilians around him. Then just in front of the soldier who chose to take his own life, just in front of him... about this far from me... I saw my uncle there and he was sitting, about as far away from me as you are now. His stomach was split open, blown open by that hand grenade. He did not say anything and just fell over towards me. My cousin was right near my uncle, and he was really shocked and started to cry. There were two aunts there, and they decided to run away. The soldier that pushed me over told me that it was dangerous there. He said we must run away because there would be more soldiers committing suicide, and he pushed us out and then I suddenly realized that the two of us were running into a sugar cane field.
■ Children also recruited for raid
Now that I think about it, I remember that the name of the place was Tehada. When we got that far, some Japanese soldiers were rounding up the men who could move and basically took all the males who were not with family. It didn’t matter if they were children or grown-ups; they just rounded all of us up, and then I was given four hand grenades. I saw grown-ups being handed six each. They told us that there was a base with US armed forces in the direction of Matansha, so we were to go on a raid.
A lance corporal took the lead and became the commander of the group, seconded by a private first class. There were two Japanese soldiers and perhaps two grown-ups, although I am not sure if they were from Okinawa or not, and then there were four children including us. So I think there were six of us altogether, and with the soldiers we were a group of eight people. I was then taught how to use a hand grenade for the first time. I was instructed to pull the safety pin before hitting the grenade on a rock. I was told it would explode in four seconds, so once I hit it I should count 1, 2, 3 and throw it. We were taught that way and we even did some preparatory exercises before starting off on the raid."
"So we started off but before we even walked 50 meters, we encountered a young Japanese officer, a lieutenant. The young lieutenant came up to us and asked, "Where do you think you are going?" Our lance corporal told him "We are going on a raid by the order of Lieutenant General, such and such" he said. The lieutenant then said "There is no such order." The commander was asked "Who conveyed that order?" and he responded "Our commander, such and such." The lieutenant said, "War must be left to soldiers, and it does not involve children. You must go home" he said. But the lance corporal said "But it is an order," nevertheless the Lieutenant said "There is no such order that calls for children to participate in the war. So give up those hand grenades" he said, and they took all of the hand grenades away from us. We were told that the lance corporal, the private first class and the young Lieutenant "will now go on a raid just the three of us, so you lot go home."
■ Hellish battlefield witnessed during journey of escape by children alone
All the children were split up, leaving just the two of us, myself and my cousin. We ran to the mountains and then to the sea, we just ran all over the place trying to escape.
We started to see the sun quite a bit by the time it was four o'clock. The sun was tilting quite a bit toward the west. Naval gunfire ceased around that time. When the naval gunfire ceased, I noticed there were children, probably the grandchildren of the old lady, the oldest being about four and the younger ones were just able to walk, three children in total. The grandmother came out to the three children, I think they were her grandchildren, but I could not see their parents anywhere. The grandmother took up a sickle and told her grandchildren to close their eyes. I was a bit far away, so I could not see clearly what went on, I was probably not quite 15 meters away but perhaps a little over 10 meters. Then this grandmother started slicing throats of her grandchildren and started tossing them off the cliff. I was shocked. My cousin saw all that and started crying again, but I did not know what to do. While all this was going on, the grandmother also cut her own throat with the sickle and jumped off the cliff.
This was the place where many dead bodies had washed up. There were so many dead bodies slightly off the rocky shore they were like driftwood floating. Some were stranded on the rocks. These were not only grown-ups, but were many small children.
"As we walked around the bottom of the cliff, some person jumped off the cliff above us, and this occurred on two occasions. They jumped when the wave was receding revealing all the rocks so that they would hit the cliff wall or the rocks and die, almost instantly probably. If they jumped while the wave was onshore though, they would possibly not die right away. There were tanks, US armed forces, perhaps just 20 meters from the coastline, waiting. The tanks drove to about five meters from the shore and picked up those people who had just jumped. When I saw the recesses of the rocks on the other side, I saw some Japanese soldiers hiding. The Japanese armed forces did not embark on any counterattacks at all. The people walking around to the left and right, and the people who committed suicide by jumping, were all civilians; none appeared to be soldiers of the Japanese armed forces. They were all civilians."
We spent the day like that. At daybreak when the sun was shining quite brightly, I began daydreaming. The American armed forces started calling to people with their loudspeakers on the mountain side, and as I was looking I saw many refugees climbing up in droves. I saw the figure of my mother from behind the rows of people, and I said to myself, "that's mother" and I jumped up and started running. When I got to that area, an American soldier helped me up with his hand. He offered me water right away. I hesitated because I thought this American soldier might have poisoned this water, so I did not want to drink it right away. Once he saw me hesitate like that the American soldier had a sip for himself. When I saw that I thought that there was no poison in there, so I gulped down a lot of water."
