Unlike some of the islands which became World War II battlefields, Saipan was an inhabited island. There was a substantial Japanese civilian population on Saipan, including Japanese. There ws an indigenous population. In addition, Japan had colonized the island. There were Koreans, Okinawans and Japanese. No one knows the precise population at the time of the invasion. There were, however, about 23,658 people living on Saipan (4,145 were indigenous) in 1937 a few years before the war began. The population of Saipan in 1937 was over half of the entire population of the Northern Marianas which totaled 46,708 people. Japanese authorities told civilians that the Americans were barbaric and would bruttaly torture all prisioners, both military and civlian. The Japanese bushido code precluded soldiers from surrendering. Why the Japanese authorities did not want the civilians to surrender is unclear. They urged the civilians to kill their children and commit suiside. Many did. Hundreds of Japanes families committed suiside. Many civilians jumped to their deaths from the high cliffs along the island's most northern point, the last area of Japanese resistance. The suisides included mothers with babies in their arms. Americans and Saipanese used loudspeakers to try to disuade the Japanese civilians to surender. Most of the civilians on Saipan survived the invasion. An estimated 90 percent are believed to have survived. The occupation of Saipan was the first American encounter with Japanese civilians.
