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National Geographic : 1967 May
Contents
-n narcunM RY WAITFRMFAYFRSFnWARDS(i9 NG._ . Trail of fire sears Marshall Islands skies as a Nike-Zeus roars up to intercept another missile fired from California, 5,000 miles away. The first of two exposures caught the scene as dusk sil houetted a flapping U. S. flag and a tracking vessel in Kwajalein lagoon; the launching came after dark. Technician (below) plots the path of an in coming missile on a map that shows Bikini Atoll, former atomic testing site, at the upper left corner. No strangers to long-distance navigation, Mar shallese once voyaged by "stick-chart" (above). They fixed positions between atolls-the shells by interpreting wave patterns indicated by sticks. KODACHROME (OPPOSITE)ANDEKTACHROME(BELOW)BY CLAYTONJ. PRICE© N.G.S. turret gun breaching the water at high tide, still aiming at the Japanese shore defenses that knocked out the tank when U. S. forces landed on Saipan, June 15, 1944. Another is a pair of cliffs, each known for its Japanese suicides-3,000 in all, I was told. Beneath one of these cliffs, in a thicket of trees, lie the bones of 1,000 civilians and soldiers who jumped rather than be taken prisoner by American troops. I toured Saipan's battlegrounds-still so littered with live ammunition that it is un safe to visit them alone-with the best guide on the island. Antonio M. Benavente, now a Trust Territory deputy sheriff, had been a guerrilla fighter and helped U. S. marines ferret Japanese holdouts out of hidden caves. We walked to the lip of the second suicide cliff, then stepped back from its vertiginous 80-foot drop to the pounding sea. "Your Navy men stood off there in ships," Tony said, "pleading with the Japanese over loudspeakers, begging them not to jump. They did, though. Some even tied stones around their children's necks first so they couldn't swim. The Navy boys came in, in small boats, to save as many as they could." Ailing Child Survives With Love No Micronesians committed suicide here, or sacrificed children. First, they didn't be lieve Japanese propaganda: After all, they had known American and European mission aries before Japanese times. More importantly, the Micronesians' love of children exceeds almost all other values. On one field trip, I had watched a sick child being cared for during the long days aboard ship before we reached the hospital. Three people-his mother, his father, and his uncle-guarded him. The mother gave him food and such medicine as an island health aide had made available. The father and uncle took turns holding him in their arms, 24 hours a day. He survived-almost cer tainly because of pure love. A child in Micronesia is someone to love and care for, however distant the relation ship. In a sense, a child is not orphaned by the death of his parents. Even before such a tragedy, he is an integral part of the larger family, and afterward, he is immediately adopted by relatives. Children play their part in family economy from the day they are able to climb trees for co conuts, help paddle a canoe, or bait a fish hook. From infancy, too, many now are part of the pervading Christian faith. One Sunday, 741
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