JAP GUERILLA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1945, Page 11

JAP GUERILLA

OBA VERSUS YANKS BECAME MARIANAS LEGEND By SGT. PHILLIP N. JOACHIM SAIPAN. When the annals of the Pacific war are compiled, a certain Captain Oba —known by his pursuers as the "Robin Hood of Saipan"—will long be remembered by the Japanese. For the Japs, too, had their guerilla heroes, like our Tweed who survived two and a half years of Japanese occupation on Guam. Oba is perhaps the most legendary of all. From the capture of Saipan in July, 1944, until Japan surrendered, the buccaneering Imperial Army officer and a band of some 300 followers defied capture. Many have since given up or have been killed, but the wily Oba himself apparently outwitted all attempts to trap him. At least there is no record of his death or capture. Armed with light machine guns, rifles, knee mortars and • hand grenades, the outlaw band bivouacked in the deep gorges of Saipan, moving from time to time as American patrols got "too hot." Lured by Movies It was their weakness for American movies that trapped a large number of Oba's men and cost many their lives. Oba, and between 100 and 150 of his followers, dressed in stolen U.S. khaki clothing, gathered on the ledge of a cliff each evening to enjoy American movies shown on the screen of an Army engineer unit theatre. That is, they enjoyed the movies until a soldier accidentally discovered them. They, however, were unaware that their hiding place had been detected.

Army authorities decided that the limited area and relatively large! concentration of Japs warranted the use of a barrage on the following day. Sites were selected for 18 GO-mm mortars, 12 81-mm mortars and four 75-mm howitzers. To avoid arousing the suspicions of the Japanese, ammunition trucks were sandwiched into the normal traffic flowing in and out of the base yard. The barrage commenced at 9.40 a.m. At 10.20 it ended, and an assault company moved up to sweep the area. Thirty-three bodies were counted and three more were killed in the sweep. Four surrendered.

Oba was still free, but his unit had been scattered. The army shrewdly changed its tactics. A public address system was set up on Saipan's higntest peak, Mount Tapotchau. Folk songs sung by Japanese children, offers of food, clothing and medical care were broadcast. For four days the "surrender" programme was on the air. One hundred and eight Japs surrendered. Oba was not among them.

Liable To Become An "Immortal"

From those who surrendered, the new hiding place of the hold-outs was learned and another barrage laid down—this time at night. Five hundred and forty rounds of mortar ammunition were lobbed into the area. Blinding floodlights were then turned on it, and the Japanese were informed over the public address system that they could surrender in safety by walking down the beams of light. Ten took advantage of the offer. A search of the area the following morning revealed 22 bodies. None was that of Oba.

Since Japan's surrender, nearly 100 others of Oba's band have given themselves up. Most, indeed, of the once-powerful little "army" have deserted him. They described him as a sad picture, dressed in stolen khaki, with Japanese leather leggings, a field officer's cap and a .94 Japanese automatic pistol from which dangles a white tassel —last symbol of authority.

To Japanese inhabitants of the Marianas, Oba has become a legend, and his fame is spreading. American authorities are determined to capture the defiant Jap or establish proof of his death before his defeated comrades in Japan turn him into an immortal hero as one more means of keeping alive the myth of Samurai invincibility. — Auckland Star and N.A.N.A.