Saipan WWII

En route to Japan - as of 11:30 p.m. 3/2/09 (8:25 am New York time): we are located 21 degrees 37.41N and 139 degrees 46.79E.

Serious notes re Saipan: Bright skies and blue seas around here saw battles and death 65 years ago. Young boys, much like the writers whose letters to Dad I am documenting in Dear Coach, were put in jeopardy, sometimes died and sometimes were saved by luck along the way. Visiting Saipan affected me deeply. Being on the invasion beach, seeing the hills and then the cliffs. . . imagining as we pulled away from the island - instead of the Queen Victoria and a bunch of freighters, what it looked like in July 1944 with a flotilla of warships. .. Imagining the moments before men were sent onto the beaches. As Saipan and Tinian Island receded in the distance, I thought about the Enola Gay, which went from Tinian on this same route to Japan.

What an enormous tragedy (WWII).

During our sea day today I read John Ciardi’s diary of his time on Saipan; he wrote about the personal side of war - about the role of luck, the fear, the uncertainty, losing friends, the knowledge that one might die tomorrow. Ciardi noted the strangeness of going to sleep at night knowing you might die the next day. [He served on B-29s bombing Japan and Iwo Jima.]

And now in the world we have a world economic crisis. I have seen the closed stores and factories in Saipan. I heard the worries about jobs on Tonga, about the effect on business in New Zealand. On the ship I have heard concerns on the part of Canadians, Australians, Germans, English, and other world travelers when we get into our political discussion group or just in casual conversations. We have a world wide disaster that must be addressed with as much courage and unselfishness as WW II. Is it possible?

PS on Rabaul - people who went on the other tour saw a totally different place - just goes to show that you shouldn’t draw conclusions from a brief visit!

Right now going by Guam and not too far from Kwajalein - both places that were just names to me before. It’s 80.9 degrees F at 11:45 pm! 8-ft waves means we’re rocking and rolling again. For Bill: 12 degrees 35.79N and 145 degrees 58.43 E. Earlier this evening we passed over the Mariana Trench, which is believed to be the deepest area of ocean anywhere in the world - 5.9 nautical miles deep.

On board for Sydney to Singapore segment: 598 Australians, 465 UK, 391 US, 84 Canadian, 57 German. 30 countries represented by passengers. total passengers: 1762.

Tomorrow Saipan, capital of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.