Following our fears

Saipan is a gorgeous island with some breathtaking views. Unfortunately, some of the most breathtaking view points were also death taking.

Saipan is now a commonwealth of the US, but after WWI, the League of Nations put it under Japanese trust administration, so it was Japanese "territory" during WWII. At the end of WWII, as the Yanks were pressing to take the island from the south of the island, the Japanese military convinced the large local Japanese civilian populace that the US soldiers would rape, torture, eat and do other unmentionable things to them. They became so terrified that they willingly followed their instructions to trek to the northern cliffs and jump to their deaths on to the rocks and ocean below. Men, women and children. Hundreds and hundreds of them. The last thing many of them saw was the breathtaking vistas of the Great Pacific.





We really do need to be careful to avoid being led around by our fears.