14 speakers to present at history conference

The Northern Marianas Humanities Council’s one-day history conference, “Cultures In War: Combatants, Islanders and Settlers in the Pacific War and Afterward,” will feature 14 presenters this June 14 at the Royal Taga Hall of the Saipan World Resort in Susupe. The one-day conference will last from 8:30am to 6pm.

According to the council’s program officer, Eulalia Villagomez, the conference is part of the activities for the 70th Anniversary of the Battles of Saipan and Tinian.

“It is free and open to the public and the seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis and registration is not required,” Villagomez said.

Conference presenters will be speaking through panels for both morning and afternoon sessions.

Presenters include 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.

Goldberg, distinguished professor of University of South in Sewanee at Tennessee’s David E. Underdown, will be presenting the Battle of Saipan beyond 1944 to examine ways in how the struggle “transcends time, place, and nationality.”

Giles, from the University of Maine at Presque Isle, will be presenting on 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 be presenting on Marine Private First Class Guy Gabaldon who “single-handedly” captured over 1,000 Japanese servicemen during the Battle of Saipan.

Williams, who has written many books and articles on the histories of war, will be presenting on how people battled their wounds, both physical and psychological, and the scars of battle survivors.

T. Cook, a professor of history and Asian studies, will be presenting the Japanese side of the war from the ground level and the Japanese survivors.

Yoneyama, a teacher, will be presenting an eye-catching narrative about Japan and, by extension on the areas of Asia and the Pacific, about forming the Japanese empire.

H. Cook, a coordinator and instructor, will present 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, of University of Tokyo, will present on contemporary Japanese tourism to the CNMI with a focus on “how it continues today’s Japanese memories of the Asia-Pacific War.”

Flores, of Chamorro and Korean descent who was born in Seoul, will present on 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, University of Guam’s history and Micronesian studies assistant professor, will speak about the militarization and music on a cross-cultural encounter in Guam and Saipan during World War II and the early post-war years.

Jordan, from the University of California in San Diego, will present the CNMI’s Chamorro participation in the invasion and occupation of Guam as scouts and interpreters.

Hughes, a son of a former Marine who fought on the island in 1944, will present on 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, an author, will present on the Naval Military Government that operated in Okinawa from September 1945 to 1946.

Mayor of Tinian’s chief of staff Farrell will be presenting on 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.

The conference is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of the Governor, Marine Corps University Foundation, Brunel University, and Delta Air Lines.