Friday, April 22, 2011

Saipan Part One

Just a short 30 minute flight from Guam lies Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands. We spent a weekend there recently and had a blast exploring it!


Our friends, Tim and Michelle joined us (notice the cute baby bump!). As soon as we landed our adventure began. The first stop was Banzai Cliff. There were many battles fought in Saipan and there are a number of memorials dedicated to this.


Saipan was seized by Japan after World War I and a large number of Japanese civilians lived there. The U.S. defeated Japan in the 1944 Battle of Saipan. Convinced they would be tortured by U.S. soldiers, over 20,000 Japanese civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle, many jumping from Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff.

Views from Banzi Cliff.


Next we headed up to Suicide Cliff in time for sunset. On the way up we met a couple friends.


The view from Suicide Cliff was beautiful but I got an eerie feeling as thousands of people lost their lives there.


We ended the day in Garapan which is the touristy area. Again, we made some more friends.


Spider-Man versus Saipan Teddy!

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