Marsh Is.#490 Marines Land on Saipan - 1994 Imperforate Mint Issue
June 15, 1944 The stakes were high when 500 ships carrying 128,000 American troops embarked on the most complex amphibious operation in the Pacific war. A Japanese loss would allow U.S. bombers based in Saipan to hit targets 1,200 miles away in Japan. Americans were met with suicidal resistance as Japanese troops struggled to push them back to the sea. The fighting turned savage as a last Japanese counterattack precipitated widespread hand-to-hand combat. Saipan was an expensive piece of real estate for both sides. During the three-week battle, U.S. losses were twice the number suffered in the six-month Guadalcanal campaign. Only 1,000 Japanese survived out of the original 30,000-man garrison. Perhaps even more tragic was the effect of Japanese war propaganda on Saipan’s civilian population. Believing that their captors would ruthlessly torture them, 22,000 men, women and children jumped to their deaths from the high rocky cliffs on the north end of the island.
