Cultures in War conference footage to air this week

Last year’s history conference will air on Channel 14 beginning today, Monday, according to Eulalia Villagomez, Northern Marianas Humanities Council program officer.

The footage will run from Feb. 16 to 21, from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

“Last year, NMHC hosted a history conference in conjunction with events to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Battle for the Marianas featuring presentations by 14 regional and international scholars on a range of topics relating to the World War II battle for the Marianas and its aftermath within the larger context of the Pacific War,” Villagomez said.

“Through support from Docomo Pacific, Inc., conference presentations will air in one-hour segments on Channel 14 beginning on Monday. Presentations will also be available on the council’s YouTube page,” Villagomez added.

The footage will include presenters Harold Goldberg, Prof. Anderson Giles, Damien O’Connell, Kathleen Williams, Theodore Cook, Lisa Yoneyama, Haruko Cook, Yujin Yaguchi, Alfred Flores, Michael Clement Jr., Jessica Jordan, Matthew Hughes, Courtney Short, and Don Farrell.

In the footage, Goldberg will discuss the Battle of Saipan beyond 1944 to examine ways in how the struggle “transcends time, place, and nationality.”

Giles will discuss the Seabees construction on Tinian, the B-29 air campaign, construction and use of atomic bomb facilities and their deployment, and the process of how man and nature have transformed the site of the ruins and their story in the present.

Military historian O’Connell will discuss Marine Private First Class Guy Gabaldon who “single-handedly” captured over 1,000 Japanese servicemen during the Battle of Saipan.

Williams will discuss how people battled their wounds, both physical and psychological, and the scars of battle survivors. T. Cook will discuss the Japanese side of the war from the ground level and the Japanese survivors.

Yoneyama has an eye-catching narrative about Japan and, by extension the areas of Asia and the Pacific, about forming the Japanese empire. H. Cook will discuss a detailed look behind the Battles of Saipan and Tinian on the use and abuse of propaganda that led to false tales of what actually happened through eyewitness accounts from both sides of the fighting nations.

Yaguchi will discuss contemporary Japanese tourism to the CNMI with a focus on “how it continues today’s Japanese memories of the Asia-Pacific War.” Flores will discuss what took place in Guam after World War II that changed the island after the U.S. military engaged in a significant expansion project.

Clement will discuss militarization and music in a cross-cultural encounter in Guam and Saipan during World War II and the early post-war years. Jordan will discuss the CNMI’s Chamorro participation in the invasion and occupation of Guam as scouts and interpreters.

Hughes will discuss the treatment by U.S. military forces of civilians during the War in the Pacific, including Japanese and Korean migrants living on the Pacific islands, and the “native” islanders such as the indigenous people of the CNMI. Jordan will discuss the Naval Military Government that operated in Okinawa from September 1945 to 1946.

Farrell will talk about the plans to drop atomic bombs on Japan and how the CNMI was chosen as the “forward base” from which the atomic bombs would be launched.