Take Taobao to fight against Japan

Some people have even taken off their military uniforms, holding the seppuku katana tightly with both hands, aiming at the abdomen, and dedicating their loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor one step ahead.

At this time, Nagumo Tadaichi and the others had reached the desperate situation of running out of ammunition and food. On the surface, there were only three paths before them: suicide, death in battle, and surrender.

But in fact, they have only one way to go, and that is seppuku.

Otherwise, there is no choice.

Because only in this way can they completely avoid the possibility of being seriously injured but unable to die while charging with the troops, and thus being captured by the US military.

For Japanese soldiers, it is absolutely unacceptable for soldiers, especially officers, to be captured.

For example, in the Battle of Nomenkan, several Japanese officers were captured.

After the Soviet army released them, the Kwantung Army prepared a table of food and wine and asked them to commit suicide after eating.

If the officers disobeyed, the Kwantung Army simply killed them and declared them suicide.

In desperation, these lieutenant-level officers had no choice but to commit suicide one after another.

This is still the case for lieutenant officers, so why talk about these generals.

Later, in 1941, the "battle training" issued by General Hideki Tojo of the Japanese Army Ministry became a reminder for Japanese soldiers.

The battle training is divided into three parts, which are roughly the precepts such as "imperial country, imperial army, unity, cooperation, attack, and victory". Among them, the seventh and eighth articles of the second part: the concept of life and death and cherishing reputation, Clearly warned the Japanese soldiers: Don't be a prisoner, otherwise you will be humiliated and your family will be humiliated, and you would rather commit suicide!

When Admiral Nagumo Tadaichi committed seppuku on Saipan, he left a suicide note, which read: "Zhanzheng said that if you are alive, you cannot accept the insult of being imprisoned by captives, and you should go forward bravely with loyalty, filial piety and sincerity. born."

In more battles, the "battle training" directly led to a large number of soldiers who were starving and skinny, completely lost their combat effectiveness, and did not choose to surrender, or starved to death, or committed suicide.

It can be said that countless Japanese soldiers were forced to death by "Battle Training".

In fact, not only the Japanese who are poisoned by militarism and Bushido spirit will fight to the end when they run out of ammunition and food, but also the Chinese nation with a strong national consciousness.

Looking at all the wars in human history, some people have come to the conclusion that when the war is also running out of ammunition and food, the Easterners will often fight to the end, while the Westerners mostly raise their hands and surrender.

The reason is entirely due to the cultural and value differences between the East and the West that have been formed for thousands of years.

Since ancient times, Orientals have had an extremely strong sense of 'nation', and they regard death in battle as a great honor.

For thousands of years, the oriental people have been adhering to the life values ​​of "it is better to be broken than to be whole", "to keep the loyal heart to reflect the history", and "to be successful if you are not successful".

That's why the Easterners really looked down on those soldiers who knelt and surrendered. When encountering a situation of running out of ammunition and food in a war, they would often sink their boats and regard death as home.

On the other hand, those soldiers who fled the battle and surrendered on the spot rarely heard of any cases of preferential treatment. Even if these people were lucky enough to find peace for a while, they would end up with a reputation that will last forever.

Therefore, "surrender" is not a good choice for most Orientals.

In the ancient West, most countries practiced the mercenary system. These soldiers hired to fight the war did not really do their best from the beginning to the end. Since it doesn't matter whether they win or lose, surrender has become commonplace.

In modern times, the Western idea of ​​supremacy of human rights has dominated the mainstream, advocating "human-centered" and emphasizing "life first", "individual" and "human nature".

The influence of thousands of years of culture has made Eastern and Western countries have similar attitudes towards surrender.

As General Eisenhower formulated the "Code of Conduct for U.S. Soldiers", it has the following provisions:

First, as far as the commander is concerned, the surrender must never be ordered as long as the subordinates think there is still reason to resist the enemy, as long as the troops can still fight and escape;

Second, for soldiers, surrender should only be considered when all reasonable resistance actions have been exhausted and continued resistance has no alternative but death.

Therefore, if it is true, it is not that the fighting will of Westerners is worse than that of Easterners. For example, during World War I and World War II, there were many battles in Western countries that fought to the end and shed the last drop of blood.

At the same time that Zhongichi Nagumo and others collectively committed suicide, more than 5000 Japanese soldiers had already ambushed in front of the US military positions in the dark, preparing for the final charge in the early morning of the next day.

The direction of attack chosen by these Japanese troops was the defensive positions of the 27th Division of the U.S. Army.

In the bloody battle that lasted nearly a month in the past, the Japanese army naturally noticed that compared with the US Marine Corps, the US Army is much inferior in terms of combat effectiveness and fighting will.

Although they were determined to make a desperate move and launch the final long live charge, they did not go crazy. Naturally, they knew that persimmons had to be picked softly.

In fact, the final attack plan drawn up by Yoshiji Saito was really not purely giving away the head, he really chose the right direction of attack.

Just when more than 5000 Japanese troops lurked in front of the 27th Division of the US Army in the dark, the 27th Division of the US Army was not vigilant enough.

Since the Japanese counterattack was hit continuously, the Japanese army, which suffered heavy casualties and lost all its technical equipment, has long been unable to launch a large-scale counterattack.

From the perspective of the 27th Division, the remaining thousands of Japanese soldiers could not hold the defense, and it was impossible for them to take the initiative to attack on a large scale.

Taking ten thousand steps back, even if they are not afraid of death and really want to counterattack, under the strong firepower of the US military, a frontal attack like Japan is completely tantamount to death, and it is completely vulnerable.

Due to underestimation of the enemy and luck, the three front battalions of the US 27th Division did not seriously repair their defensive positions.

In their defensive positions, not only were there fire gaps hundreds of meters wide, but foxholes and trenches were also poorly fortified.

It is also true that the 27th Division of the US Army paid an extremely heavy price in casualties.

Chapter 1615 Long Live Cliff

"His Majesty the Emperor onboard!"

"The Great Japanese Empire is on board!!"

"Imperial Warriors! Onboard!"

"Onboard!"

There was nothing to say all night, and the time soon came to the early morning of the 7th. The sky was just dawning, and with the sound of sharp call signs, bursts of crazy shouts followed one after another, like a thunderbolt falling from the blue for nine days, resounding through the valley in an instant, breaking the early morning. dead silence.

"My God, what's the matter?"

"God, what did I see?"

"It's crazy!"

Immediately afterwards, the officers and soldiers of the 105th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army were shocked to find that in the thick fog ahead, an unknown number of Japanese soldiers appeared at once, all of them pounced desperately, screaming at their throats.

Due to the heavy fog, the Japanese army had successfully lurked 200 meters in front of the US position.

As a result, the Japanese army had just launched a charge, and before the American soldiers could react, they rushed to within 50 meters in front of the position.

What is even more exaggerated is that all the wounded soldiers who could act in the Japanese army also charged with the infantry.

These wounded soldiers were wrapped in bandages and leaning on crutches, some of them were holding grenades, some were even holding a bayonet, and many of them were empty-handed, pounced on the U.S. troops.

Such a hell-level scene suddenly made all US military officers and soldiers dumbfounded.

They didn't realize at all that the desperate Japanese army would be so crazy that they would launch such a crazy suicide attack.

Caught off guard, the U.S. military fell into chaos for a time, and there was no way to organize effective fire interception.

One man is desperately invincible, not to mention the suicide charge launched by more than 5000 desperate Japanese soldiers. Under the impact of 10 times the force, the frontier positions of the US military could not stand it at all.

In just a few minutes, the 1st Battalion of the U.S. Army suffered a devastating blow, causing hundreds of casualties, and only a few dozen people were forced to abandon their positions and retreat when they saw that the entire army was about to be wiped out.

The 2nd Battalion resisted desperately, but was soon submerged under the crazy charge of the Japanese army.

The 3rd Battalion has a better position and a relatively strong position, and the situation is relatively better. Seeing that the 2nd Battalion is in a tight situation, they immediately reinforce some troops.

In the life-and-death battle, because the Japanese army was coming too fiercely, many machine guns of the US military not only ran out of ammunition, but even later lost their barrels due to overheating, so they could only use rifle bursts.

The Japanese army with the will to die only wanted to be able to pull a back before they died. Their suicide charge did not count casualties at all, but just blindly broke through and advanced.

A large number of Japanese soldiers directly carried explosive packs and hand grenades, rushed into the US positions and detonated them directly, blowing themselves into pieces, and at the same time took away the US soldiers nearby.

When the battle was at its most intense, the U.S. front-line infantry could not stop the crazy Japanese attack at all, and could only ask for artillery support.

It's a pity that the American and Japanese soldiers were too close, and even hand-to-hand combat took place in many places. Naturally, the American artillery dared not fire.

But in the end, as the situation continued to deteriorate, the only option was to choose the lesser of two evils. The U.S. military commander hesitated again and again before ordering the artillery to fire with full firepower.

Under the intensive shelling, many Japanese soldiers were killed, which to a certain extent blocked their crazy offensive momentum.

But at the same time, many shells also fell on the heads of the US troops themselves, causing a lot of casualties.

The 105th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army launched a bloody battle with the Japanese army. Although the U.S. military had abundant firepower, it also retreated steadily under the heavy pressure of the Japanese army. The first, second, and third battalions were almost completely destroyed. With the help of the troops, the Japanese army was repelled.

This bloody battle lasted for several hours, and it didn't come to an end until around two o'clock in the afternoon. In the end, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions of the U.S. Army suffered all casualties, with losses as high as 1400, of which 920 were killed.

In addition, American soldiers who came to support from other troops also paid the price of 82 killed and 106 injured.

But even so, the winner is ultimately the US military.

After all, the U.S. military's combat effectiveness is still very strong, its firepower is extremely fierce, and it also has an absolute advantage in military strength.

In half a day, the U.S. military killed more than 4500 Japanese soldiers.

Within a range of tens of meters before and after the US military positions, there is almost no ground to be seen, and all of them are layers of corpses of soldiers from both the enemy and us.

There are all kinds of dead bodies everywhere, stumps and broken arms, all kinds of shocking flesh and blood, and the blood that flows out has stained and soaked the whole earth, turning it into a muddy wetland!

Such a scene is like purgatory on earth, and those American soldiers who survived will never forget it for a lifetime!

After this battle, the Japanese army had no energy left to fight any more and could only retreat hastily.

Subsequently, the U.S. troops took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, and the counterattack went smoothly into the last defensive position of the Japanese army, a canyon.

The canyon was littered with dead Japanese soldiers, and many wounded and dying.

Powerless to resist and unable to flee, the wounded did not wait to be captured, but detonated hand grenades to explode themselves, or cut their arteries with bayonets.

There were so many Japanese soldiers who committed suicide here that the U.S. military later called it "Fukuku Valley".

There were too many Japanese corpses, and the U.S. military was too busy fighting to bury them, so they used bulldozers to push all the corpses into a ravine for collective burial.

By July 7, the Japanese defense of Saipan had completely collapsed.

On this day, Rear Admiral Hideo Yano, Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Hideo Yano, Commander of the 3rd Mine Squadron, Rear Admiral Hiroshi Nakagawa, Commander of the 5th Base Force and Commander of the 2nd Sea Guard, Rear Admiral Takehisa Tsujimura, Commander of the 1st Joint Communications Team, and Yasuyuki Ito, Commander of the [-]st Joint Communications Team Rear Admiral Jin committed suicide.

Later, three more Japanese generals died in battle.

So far, a total of 11 generals of the Japanese army in the Battle of Saipan committed suicide or died in battle.

When the time came to July 7th, the remnants of the Japanese army only controlled the northernmost corner of Saipan Island, and there was only one last breath left before complete destruction.

However, what the Allied forces never expected was that the tragedy on Saipan was far from over.

After the Japanese army's large-scale suicide operations ended, the remaining 1000 remnants were defeated and began to force more than 2 Japanese residents to commit suicide collectively.

Because, before this, Saito had already issued a crazy order that ordinary people also commit suicide: "There is no difference between residents and soldiers. They should join in the charge with bamboo spears and not be captured."

As a result, about 8000 civilians jumped into the sea from the cliff of Mapi Point, the northernmost point of Saipan Island, including some women and children.

Some of them were forced to commit suicide by soldiers, while others committed suicide voluntarily.

These Japanese civilians have long been brainwashed by state propaganda tools, thinking that surrender is an extremely shameful thing.

At the same time, in their cognition, they firmly believe that even if the Japanese civilians surrender, men will be slaughtered collectively, and women will be brutally raped and then killed.

After the Japanese women worshiped in the direction of the emperor, they threw the screaming child off the cliff, and then jumped down by themselves.

There were also Japanese women holding several children and jumping down together.

Both U.S. soldiers and U.S. Navy warships saw the tragedy with binoculars.

Years later, a U.S. Navy officer wrote in his memoirs:

"It's terrible, it's really terrible."

"Only by seeing this scene can you understand the cruelty of war. When our warship arrived here, there were floating corpses of Japanese civilians on the sea, most of them were young, old, women and children."

"I saw with my own eyes the dead bodies of a mother and her little boy, hugging each other tightly."

"I also saw the body of a pregnant woman whose baby had been delivered from her belly due to the impact of jumping off the cliff and the changes after death.

The dead baby died with its mother, drifting to and fro with the waves, it was horrible. "

Seeing the mother jumping off the cliff with her baby in her arms, the American soldiers were terrified. Holding up their loudspeakers, they shouted in Japanese, "The US military will give preferential treatment to prisoners and will not abuse civilians", "There will be no massacres, only food and safety".

But unfortunately, all this is of no avail, their efforts are completely ineffective, and all Japanese civilians simply don't believe their words.

Extensive political propaganda in pre-war Japan portrayed the Americans and the British as devils, saying that they would treat prisoners of war brutally and threatened to kill anyone who dared to surrender, so civilians had no choice but to commit suicide.

The U.S. military can only watch these people all jump off the cliff, and eventually with the suicide of thousands of people, the Battle of Saipan is over.

After the war, it was called "Long Live Cliff" by the Japanese.

There is also another place called Suicide Cliff, where more than 1000 Japanese civilians jumped off the cliff collectively.

Chapter 1616

At 7:9 pm on July 4, Admiral Richard Kelly Turner officially announced that Saipan was occupied.

As a result, the three-week Saipan campaign ended.

In terms of time, the Battle of Saipan took place from June 1944, 6 to July 15, 1944, but before the official landing on the 7th, the Allied forces not only destroyed Saipan’s air force through the battle for air supremacy, but also Prepare for artillery fire on Saipan for two full days.