Army & Navy – OCCUPATION: At Camp Susupe

The U.S. was only beginning to learn about military occupation of Japanese territory. But by last week a pattern for the future was forming on Saipan, first Jap territory where U.S. forces encountered large numbers of Jap civilians.

On Saipan scrawny, hungry Jap civilians were still coming out of caves where they had hidden since the battle began last June. Upon surrendering they are placed in a two-square-mile compound named “Camp Susupe” (after the nearby shallow lake), which now shelters 18,000 — 13,000 Japs, the rest Christian Chamorros, Koreans and Kanakas.

Food and Shelter. Life is primitive on Saipan. The shipping shortage and the necessity of supplying battles farther west permit only the barest necessities (even for Saipan’s American conquerors, who still eat out of cans). For the captive civilians the only cover is what can be built out of weathered planks, battered sheet tin from the bomb-shattered sugar refinery, and tattered tenting.

Each rickety hut (called a “han”) shelters several families totaling 20 to 55 persons. U.S. authorities deal with each group through the “hancho,” or leader. Camp Susupe’s residents wear whatever clothing can be salvaged from captured supplies, eat from the Japs’ rice, kelp and canned stores, and take what few food essentials the U.S. can spare. Recently families have been released during the daytime to cultivate green vegetables, which grow easily in Saipan’s fertile ground.

Medical Care. About 100,000 treatments have been given Saipan’s civilians by Army and Navy doctors and their assistants since D-plus-five. The “Midtown Pharmacy” still treats about 1,200 cases each day. Chief ailment: malnutrition, for which vitamin B1 injections are given in severe cases. Other maladies : diarrhea, worms, beriberi.

An Army-staffed hospital which receives the seriously ill and the wounded who have been hiding out is not as busy as it was just after the battle.

Birth & Death. Saipan Japs had one of the highest birth rates on earth: about 300 children were born annually to each 1,000 women aged 15 to 45. Now ten to 15 babies are born each day at Camp Susupe. Authorities have attempted to record births as they occurred. Friendly Chamorros usually comply; Japs do not.

Navy Lieut. Robert Frost (“from Auburn, Maine; I wish to God I was back there”) told a reporter: “We were going crazy with babies at first. There were a lot of orphans, and nobody had thought of baby bottles and nipples for them. We used rubber gloves, medicine droppers —anything to get milk into them. They rushed us out some baby bottles from the States and we are in pretty good shape now.” Diapers were included in the Navy’s last shipment to Saipan.

The camp’s orphan asylum has only 60 babies, who are attended by three Japanese nurses. The number of civilians killed by bombing and shelling was surprisingly low on Saipan, and many of the thousands of adult civilians who committed suicide at the battle’s end killed their children also.

Deaths at Camp Susupe average twelve a day, regarded as low, considering the poor physical condition of the population.

The Japs usually carry their dead to Midtown Pharmacy morgue during the night, leave them where authorities find them in the morning and have them buried.

Besides working in the fields, Saipan’s civilians are beginning to return to their old trades: fishing, handicraft, light industry. Common laborers are paid 35¢ daily, skilled workers 50¢. Some women have started making two-for-a-nickel cigars. A curio business is being started to fashion souvenirs for the Americans.

Religion. Camp Susupe’s makeshift Buddhist “temple” has a tin roof, no front wall, but its priest has all his trappings. Shinto (Emperor worship) poses more of a problem in religious freedom—thus far, U.S. authorities have made no attempt to stop Shintoism, but no facilities have been set up to encourage it.

Significance. Because Saipan’s civilians are mostly ignorant peasants from the comparatively remote Ryukyu Islands, and presumably less fanatical than civilians who will be found in Japan proper, Saipan furnishes no perfect example for the future. But Pacific forces have learned a lot about the many problems of occupying enemy territory. And the Orient can learn there that Americans are at their considerate best once victory is won.