Editing Northern Mariana Islands (section)

===World War II===
{{further|Pacific Islands home front during World War II}}
[[File:Marine infantrymen on Saipan.jpg|thumb|left|[[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marines]] in [[Garapan]], Saipan]]
On December 8, 1941, hours after the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], Japanese forces from the Marianas launched an [[Battle of Guam (1941)|invasion of Guam]]. Chamorros from the Northern Marianas, which had been under Japanese rule for more than 20 years, were brought to Guam to assist the Japanese administration. This, combined with the harsh treatment of Guamanian Chamorros during the 31-month occupation, created a rift that would become the main reason Guamanians rejected [[1969 Guamanian unification with the Northern Mariana Islands referendum|the referendum]] on the reunification of Guam with the Northern Marianas that the Northern Marianas approved in the 1960s.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

On June 15, 1944, the United States military invaded the Mariana Islands, starting the [[Battle of Saipan]], which ended on July 9. Of the 30,000 Japanese troops defending Saipan, fewer than 1,000 remained alive at the battle's end.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-saipan.htm |title=Battle Of Saipan |publisher=Historynet.com |access-date=August 29, 2015}}</ref> Many civilians were also killed, by disease, starvation, enemy fire, or suicide; about 1,000 civilians killed themselves by jumping off cliffs.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Trefalt|first=Beatrice|date=November 2009|title=After the Battle for Saipan: the Internment of Japanese Civilians at Camp Susupe, 1944–1946|doi=10.1080/10371390903298037|journal=Japanese Studies|volume=29|issue=3|pages=337–352|s2cid=144676151|via=Taylor & Francis Online}}</ref> U.S. forces then recaptured Guam on July 21, and [[Battle of Tinian|invaded Tinian]] on July 24. A year later, [[Tinian]] was the takeoff point for the ''[[Enola Gay]]'', the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on [[Hiroshima]]. [[Rota (island)|Rota]] was left untouched (and isolated) until the Japanese surrender in August 1945, owing to its military insignificance and U.S. forces' strategy of "island hopping"  in which they did not invade islands that they did not need. The story of the holdouts on [[Anatahan]] was told in 1953 by [[Josef von Sternberg]] in his film ''[[Anatahan (film)|The Saga of Anatahan]]''.

The war did not end for everyone with the signing of the armistice. The last group of [[Japanese holdout]]s surrendered on Saipan on December 1, 1945. However, as mentioned, a group of about 30 held out until 1951 on Anahatan. The bizarre story has been the subject of several movies and writings, including ''The Saga of Anatahan''. On a related note, on Guam, Japanese soldier [[Shoichi Yokoi]], unaware that the war had ended, hid in a jungle cave in the [[Talofofo, Guam|Talofofo]] area until 1972.

Japanese nationals were eventually repatriated to the [[Japanese archipelago|Japanese home islands]]. After World War II, the people of Marianas were able to return to the Northern Marianas under the protection of the United Nations Trusteeship administered by the United States. During this time, a series of referendums took place.