Saipan residents reflect on Emperor Akihito's 2005 visit to pay respects to war dead
Even 14 years later, the trip by Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands remains one of the Pacific island's most memorable occasions. News about the emperor's April 30 abdication stirred memories among some residents of the then-imperial ...
Typhoon Yutu leaves Northern Marianas without power or water
Rescue teams and heavy equipment were mobilized across the Northern Mariana Islands on Thursday after a typhoon hit U.S. Western Pacific territories overnight, causing blackouts and damage to critical infrastructure. With sustained winds of over 270 kph (168 mph), Typhoon Yutu pulled down trees, telegraph ...
Aichi man recalls abuse his family faced when branded spies before World War II
It was when Hisao Mesaki, now 85, returned to Japan from Saipan in early 1941 with his parents and siblings that an offhand remark to his new classmates aroused suspicion he was from a family of spies. They had been living in Saipan since the ...
Monk Kaishun Nishigaya's voyage from Japan to Seattle, Alaska and Saipan
Nishigaya was offered a resident ministry at Seattle Nichiren Buddhist Church and, undeterred by the 14-day journey by ship to reach the United States, snapped it up.
Saipan survivor recalls mass suicide bids during the war
Both sweet and unbearable memories come to mind whenever Shinsho Kuniyoshi recalls his life on Saipan. Kuniyoshi, 83, was born on Saipan in 1932, four years after his parents migrated to the island in the Northern Marianas from Okinawa Prefecture. His mother gave birth to ...
Saipan police on Tuesday called off the search for two Japanese tourists missing since June 29, when they are believed to have set out to sea in an inflatable raft. Natsuki Yamada, 33, and her sister Chinatsu, 26, were last seen on a closed-circuit camera ...
Battle of Saipan: beginning of the end
Seventy years ago, the Imperial Japanese Army lost a pivotal battle over the Pacific island of Saipan, a defeat that put Tokyo within range of high-altitude U.S. B-29 bombing raids that could evade Japan's inadequate air defenses.
Battle of Saipan: a brutal invasion that claimed 55,000 lives
'It's hard to dig a hole when you're lying on your stomach digging with your chin'
A search is underway for two Japanese sisters who went missing on the Pacific island of Saipan after their rental car was not returned on time and they failed to board their scheduled flight home, police said Wednesday. They said there is evidence that the ...
