_Marine talks a terrified Chamorro woman and her children into leaving
her refuge._]
[Illustration: _Civilians are escorted back to safety, food, and
medical care._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 83013
]
One of the captured persons impressed Graf so very much that the memory
was vivid many years later. A Japanese woman, obviously an aristocrat,
probably a wife or mistress of a high-ranking officer, “was captured.
She was dressed in traditional Japanese clothing: a brilliant kimono,
a broad sash around the waist, hair combed, lacquered and spotlessly
clean. Although,” as Graf remarked, “she knew not what her fate would
be in the hands of us, the barbarians, she stood there straight, proud,
and seemingly unafraid. To me, she seemed like a queen.”
Over on the west side of Saipan, the 2d Marine Division had a memorable
day on 25 June. Ever since the landing, the towering peak of Mount
Tapotchau had swarmed with Japanese artillery spotters looking straight
down on every Marine move and then calling in precisely accurate fire
on the American troops. Now, however, in a series of brilliant tactical
maneuvers, with a battalion of the 8th Marines clawing up the eastern
slope, a battalion of the 29th Marines (then attached to the 8th
Marines) was able to infiltrate around the right flank in single file
behind a screen of smoke and gain the dominating peak without the loss
of a single man.
Meanwhile, back at Nafutan Point, the battalion of the 105th Infantry
assigned to clean out the by-passed Japanese pockets had had continuous
problems. The official Army account commented, “The attack of the
infantry companies was frequently uncoordinated; units repeatedly
withdrew from advanced positions to their previous night’s bivouacs;
they repeatedly yielded ground they had gained.”
The stalemate came to a climax on the night of D+11. Approximately
500 of the trapped Japanese, all the able-bodied men who remained,
passed “undetected” or “sneaked through” (as the Army later reported)
the lines of the encircling battalion. The enemy headed for nearby
Aslito airfield and there was chaos initially there. One P-47 plane was
destroyed and two others damaged. The Japanese quickly continued on to
Hill 500, hoping to reunite there with their main forces. What they
found instead was the 25th Marines resting in reserve with an artillery
battalion of the 14th Marines. The escaping Japanese were finished off
the following morning.
[Illustration: