60th Battle of Saipan docu missing

Five years have passed since the 60th commemoration of the Battle of Saipan but copies of the June 2004 documentary resulting from hundreds of hours of filming by the Northern Marianas College and Talk Story Studios have yet to find their way to the CNMI Archives, the CNMI Council for the Humanities, the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library and the American Memorial Park, among other local and regional repositories of historic records.

These agencies also indicated they do not know if an edited documentary exists.

Because they do not possess copies of the documentary produced from the filming, these agencies cannot make copies available for public viewing, borrowing or sale, even as the CNMI is now preparing for the 65th commemoration of the Battle of Saipan.

At the same time, two veterans living in the U.S. mainland—Gary Boothe and Dr. Ted Palmer, a Korean War veteran—have been asking for help finding copies of a documentary based on the “filming” of a June 14, 2004 “campfire chat,” which they describe as one of the most moving events of the commemoration activities.

“Nearly five years have passed since the 60th anniversary commemoration, yet no one that I and others know seems to have any idea as to whether a video of the campfire chat exists anywhere but remains unavailable for some reason—or was ever been compiled and otherwise prepared in the first place,” said Palmer, who came to Saipan in 2004 for the 60th commemoration activities.

Jerry Facey, co-chair of the 60th Anniversary Steering Committee, is currently off island. When asked about the June 2004 documentary and a campfire chat footage/documentary, he said he already replied to Boothe.

Boothe shared with Saipan Tribune a copy of Facey’s letter, which indicated that Facey also did not have a copy of the campfire chat’s footage. Facey has yet to reply to Tribune questions about the whole 60th commemoration documentary.

Butch Wolf, who put together the NMC film students to take footage of the 60th commemoration activities and owner of Talk Story Studios, which was contracted by the steering committee to assemble a “final” video, said the footages taken of the campfire chat were “a wash” and were technically impossible to be made part of a documentary because it was raining so hard that night.

He cited, for example, that the rain made it difficult for the lighting to work properly, people were under canopies, and participants didn’t use the microphones all the time.

James Deleon Guerrero, one of the NMC students who took the footages, separately said the campfire chat happened on a rainy night.

Wolf, however, said a documentary of the 60th commemoration was produced out of the edited videos taken by NMC students. He said all the completed videos were turned over to the Arizona Memorial Museum Association, which operates the American Memorial Park on Saipan, and that the documentary was played here and Hawaii.

However, the American Memorial Park repeatedly said they do not have a copy of such a documentary.

Herbert Del Rosario, director of the CNMI Archives, said they have not received copies of the videos of the raw footage pertaining to the 60th commemoration.

Robert Hunter, executive director of the CNMI Museum of History and Culture, yesterday said no copies of either a documentary or raw video footage reached the museum. He said they checked their records because of recent inquiries about the documentary.

“We went through our inventory. We found no raw footage or a completed, edited documentary. The only documentary we have of the 60th commemoration is the one produced by Chris Nelson,” he said.

Jennifer Rospel, acting director of the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, yesterday said they have also not received copies of the documentary or the video footage.

A Dec. 20, 2005, letter from Facey addressed to Paz C. Younis, then executive director of the NMI Council for the Humanities, stated that edited tapes of the oral histories and story telling related to the 60th commemoration are at the CNMI Museum and the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library.

Facey also said at the time that the steering committee was making arrangements with the CNMI Archives to store the complete records of the interviews and films of the entire 60th anniversary events.

Only the CNMI Council for the Humanities has copies of the raw, unedited footages of the commemoration activities, contained in seven six-hour VHS tapes.

The Council for the Humanities awarded a grant to the 60th commemoration committee for the filming of the June 2004 activities, said Scott Russell, acting executive director/program officer.

“The Council has no plans to edit the tapes or to make a documentary using them. We will have VHS tapes converted to DVD format and will ensure that copies are made available to interested individuals and to local and regional repositories,” Russell said.

For well over a year, Palmer and fellow veteran Gary M. Boothe, who spent several of his boyhood years living on Saipan, have been trying to locate a video of the campfire chat and determine if one ever existed. If it did, they want to know how to obtain a copy of it.

They both attended the campfire chat. Palmer said he watched the filming from the front row of the grandstand benches, and the audience was given the impression that a resulting video would eventually become available for personal use and for sharing with family and friends and veterans.

During the campfire chat, veterans of the 1944 Marianas campaign spoke of their experiences during the war and their present feelings about it. “In all, the campfire chat was an extraordinary and moving event,” said Palmer, who lives in Sacramento, California.

On page 40 of the official Commemorative Program booklet, the steering committee said they will establish two archival oral history projects to be conducted from June 12 to 17, 2004. Together, they were called the oral history and story telling project.

“For the veterans and others, one of the 60th anniversary’s most memorable and poignant events was the ‘campfire chat’ that took place on the evening of June 14 [2004] in the American Memorial Park,” Palmer told Saipan Tribune.

“However all this may eventually turn out, and whenever that may be, Gary Boothe and I hope many veterans and others will attend the 65th anniversary this June,” he added.