WWII-era sandbags unearthed

Last February’s discovery of several pounds of ammunition in San Antonio has also yielded sandbags suggesting that the dig may have been used as a Japanese defensive position in World War II.

Archeologist Marilyn Swift, of Swift and Harper Archaeological Resource Consulting, said several stacks of sandbags have recently been unearthed at the site along Beach Road.

The site was originally excavated as part of improvements being made to the area’s sewer line system.

Swift said they found the sandbags not long after the Department of Public Safety removed the rounds, and another archaeologist Alfred Flores proceeded to document the “stratigraphy” of the area.

Swift said the walls of the trench were scraped to a clean surface that led to the discovery of the sandbag position. Oval shapes enclosed in slender black outlines exposed the stacked sandbags, standing over a meter in height.

Swift showed the outlines of the oval shapes during an interview with Saipan Tribune last Friday.

The sandbags indicated a gun position and ammunition compartment, which was separated from the gun position probably for safety reasons, according to Swift.

She said the part of this position exposed in the pipeline trench is the ammunition compartment.

“We wonder why the position and ammunition were abandoned,” she said.

The mystery over the sandbags was finally resolved after a conversation with U.S. Marine veteran Walt Wagner during the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima commemoration ceremony last March 9 at the American Memorial Park.

Swift said Wagner, who served in the 4th Marine Division and landed with the first wave on June 15, 1944, told her that the U.S. Marines had no time to construct such defenses during the invasion.

He said the sandbags were at a Japanese post later captured by U.S. forces and was abandoned in the haste of battle. Swift said Wagner recalled that possibly the position might have been left in place for a rear flank maneuver.

Swift said Flores first discovered the position during archaeological monitoring of the pipeline trenching that unearthed 50mm caliber machine gun rounds, which were extracted by DPS officers John Diaz and Eric David.

Diaz and David reported that bullets were marked with black, red or blue tips, which designated the munitions for tracer, armor-piercing, or incendiary purposes.

As of this date the recovered ammunition totaled over 1,000 rounds. The ammunition was encased in a wooden box shielded with steel casing on the outside; bold yellow English lettering was observed on the outside of one of the boxes.

Swift said little is known as to the fate of the post’s gunner.

“He may have been killed in action. It is important to note that the remainder of the position is preserved in place,” she said.

Swift said any investigations in the future might uncover the other portions of Japanese defensive positions and reveal the rest of the story.