True story
I know this is late getting to you, but I have not checked my email lately and missed the article from June 16, 2014, regarding whether the reports of suicides on Saipan during World War II were accurate. I don’t know how many suicides there were, but I do know that there were suicides.
A gentleman who resides in the same community as I in Florida was talking to me about Saipan on one occasion when I went to visit while living on Saipan. I mentioned to him that we were getting ready to have our 60th reunion on Saipan of the Battle of Saipan and Tinian and as a former sailor who was stationed there during that time, he might want to consider going back for the reunion. He said he was an 18-year-old kid when there and that there was no way he would ever go back because part of his duty was retrieving bodies from the area around the base of Suicide Cliff. He said he would never, ever forget how horribly those people died. So at least one person remembers vividly cleaning up after people were told to commit suicide. How sad! Thank you.
Sylvia Wagner Haywood
Saipan resident 2006-2010
