Japanese > Surrender

Saipan was declared secure on July 9, 1944 but pockets of Japanese resistance continued for 16 more months. Four months after the end of WWII, the last Japanese soldier in Saipan surrendered on December 1, 1945 when Japanese Army Captain Sakeo Oba and his 46 men came out of the jungle. "There were about 45 Japanese men and officers that came out of the jungle to surrender. I think it had been negotiated for a short time before. We heard them the night before celebrating with sake, we think." Al Sando, a U.S. soldier who arrived in Saipan six months earlier.

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