(WORLD WAR TWO) Yoshitsugu Saito Message from the Japanese c

Sale 2580 - Lot 291

Price Realized: $ 390

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(WORLD WAR TWO.) Yoshitsugu Saito. Message from the Japanese commander at Saipan to his doomed troops. Carbon copy of an English-language translation of a general order issued by General Saito as commander of Japanese forces at Saipan, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches; 2 punch holes in upper margin, folds, minor wear; manuscript transmittal note in English in lower margin. Saipan, 6 July 1944

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The Battle of Saipan began with a 15 June 1944 American assault. The island represented a final line of defense against direct air attacks on Japan, so the Japanese commander Yoshitsugu Saito vowed to fight to the last man against impossible odds. He issued this message on 6 July, near the end of the fighting: "For more than 20 days since the American devils attacked, the officers, men, and the civilian employees of the Imperial Army and Navy on this island have fought well and bravely. . . . Now we have no material with which to fight and our artillery for attack has been completely destroyed. . . . Whether we attack or stay where we are there is only death. . . . I will advance with those who remain to deliver still another blow to the American devils and leave my bones on Saipan as a bulwark of the Pacific. . . . I will never suffer the disgrace of being taken alive and I will offer up the courage of my soul and calmly rejoice in living by the eternal principle." The next morning his remaining 4,000 troops, many of them wounded, launched the largest human-wave suicide attack of the war. Nearly all of them were killed, taking 400 American soldiers with them.

Saito's captured final message was soon translated and distributed; it remains a haunting seminal text of the war. This copy was acquired by an unknown American soldier, who wrote "Danny: This fell into our hands some time ago. Above is a translation of the original message in Japanese."