Saipan's Land and Sea: Battle Scars & Sites of Resilience Grant uri icon

abstract

  • The newly proposed Landmarks of American History and Culture program, Saipan?s Land and Sea: Battle Scars & Sites of Resilience, is a collaborative, community-based project by East Carolina University (ECU) in partnership with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island Public School System (CNMI PSS), Kagman High School, Northern Marianas Humanities Council (NMHC), Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Historic Preservation (HPO), and Guardians of Gani? on the island of Saipan. This one-week program supports two groups of 36 educators interested in historical conflict and inclusion of indigenous perspectives in enhancing their history and literacy curriculum through place-based study of historical themes in US history and culture. The chosen landmarks include a collection of battle scars and sites of resilience on and around the island of Saipan, a US commonwealth in the western Pacific Ocean, spanning hundreds of years. There is a long history of conflict and resilience in Micronesia, and more specifically the island chain of the Marianas, which includes the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI) and Guam. Its Indigenous peoples have been the subject of numerous episodes of colonial aggressions and resistance from the Spanish in the 17th century, to the Germans in the 19th century, to Japan and the United States of America (US) in the 19th and 20th centuries. Invasions, battles, and colonial aggressions have been waged with and on top of these Pacific Islanders with a continued spirit of survival. Saipan?s land and seascape, unlike many other places in the world, represent in both tangible and intangible ways the heritage of those conflicts, the oldest of which are the Spanish-Chamorro Wars and the most recent and prominent is the Battle for Saipan, continues to resonate in contemporary culture on Saipan. Saipan is unique in that Japanese and US military heritage sites (shipwrecks, assault vehicles, and aircrafts), echoing both nations? roles in the Pacific Theater, remain largely unchanged. Also, Saipan demonstrates the civilian experience through the thousands of Indigenous Chamorro and Carolinians and Okinawan and Japanese civilians who were for the most part unwilling participants. Combined, the enduring conflict heritage sites in Saipan?s lagoons and on land provide a view of WWII military history and heritage as a microcosm of the larger Pacific Theater and includes the atomic bomb droppings on Japan from NMI. This workshop is slated for summer 2020, which is the 76th Anniversary of the Battle for Saipan with many activities planned on the island. Hosting Battle Scars & Sites of Resilience on Saipan provides teachers a chance to see and interact with a continuous, intact, and largely undisturbed record of conflict history from the prehistoric to the historic period. Teachers will have the opportunity to see, feel, and interact with sites that are in outdoor spaces on land and in the sea. This program offers teachers an incomparable experience to explore tangible history and heritage outside of museum walls with a complementary and alternative way to approach and better understand war as shared history.

date/time interval

  • October 2019 - December 2023