The island of Saipan sounds like a wonderful place to visit if you're interested in World War II sightseeing (and who isn't?). THE 2 wrote to tell me all about it:
"I recently took a four-day trip to Saipan, an island in the South Pacific that was one of the major battlegrounds during WWII between the US and Japan. Since the island has not undergone the crazy tourist-trap development like other nearby islands such as Guam, the place remains littered with war wreckage, monuments, and sites -- still standing -- where dozens of people either were riddled with bullets or killed themselves to evade capture. Rusting tank parts (and in one case, the entire tank) litter the beaches. Monuments surround the precipice of what is called "Suicide Cliff", a mountainside from which hundreds of Japanese soldiers and colonists jumped to their deaths rather than suffer the indignity of being taken prisoner. Heavy guns lie silent in crumbling pillboxes, not disarmed and stuffed with concrete like memorials in the USA, but left there after their last use, shell doors hanging open and arming pins still present. The Last Command Post, so named because it was the last spot the Japanese army defended in 1944, remains standing, a concrete bunker that was blown open and stitched with bullet holes. (One can actually enter this bunker through a tunnel and stand in the spot where, according to a guide book, several dozen colonists were blown up by US mortar fire.) And if you take a boat trip to one of the offshore islets, you will be able to view the completely intact remains of a Japanese "Zero" fighter aircraft, lying right there on the sea bottom about 5 meters down. I was told that if you are a scuba diver, you can dive on the wreck and SIT IN THE PILOT'S SEAT, since the canopy is open (although I didn't do this myself). And if that isn't morbid enough, keep in mind that the skeletal remains of war dead are still said to be occasionally found in the jungle, deep in the interior of the island."