SAIPAN Mayor RB Camacho is to be commended for his decision to honor some of the men who served in combat on Saipan who have never been properly recognized in the past. Among them were Black Marines who served on Saipan. Although relegated to stevedoring, these Marines proved themselves in combat, as evidenced by the following event:
While under heavy fire, Black Marines unloaded food and ammunition from landing vehicles and unloaded supplies to support the troops on the beach. Some were forced by circumstances to shoulder their rifles and fight for their lives alongside their White counterparts. They were the first African-American Marines to see combat in World War II. Some of the men were sent forward to replace riflemen who had either been killed or wounded at the front. “In the heat of battle, no one bothered to acknowledge the significance of Colonel Jones’s order, but it was the first time since World War I that Black Marines were called upon to face enemy soldiers.”
Before landing at Saipan, the 20th Depot Company commander had told his Black Marines, “What you do with the situation that confronts you, and how you perform, will be the basis on which you, and your race, will be judged.” His orderly, Private Kenneth Jewell Tibbs, was killed by artillery fire shortly afterwards. The Black Marine that replaced him on the front became the first Black Marine fatality of World War II.
Commandant of the Marine Corps, Lt. General Alexander A. Vandegrift, declared: “The Negro Marines are no longer on trial. They are Marines, period.” Famous war correspondent Robert Sherod wrote, “The Negro Marines, under fire for the first time, have rated a universal 4.0 on Saipan.” By the end of the war, 19,168 African-American males became Marines, 12,738 of whom served in the Pacific.
Other “people of color” who fought on Saipan and Tinian included Navajo Code Talkers, and Japanese-Americans like Ben Kuroki, who completed 25 missions as a gunner aboard a B-17 in Europe, then requested a transfer to the Pacific for experience as a B-29 gunner flying against Japan from Saipan.
Again, my congratulations to Mayor Camacho. I hope we see a representative of the Montford Black Marines riding in this year’s Liberation Day Parade.
References: Campbell, The Color of War, p. 180, Shaw, Black Marines, p. 35, Jones, Derrik, Major, USMC. Master Degree Thesis.
DON FARRELL
Marpo Heights, Tinian
