Bombers from the island took part in the attack on Tokyo during Operation Meetinghouse and later the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over the following months, US forces quickly expanded Tinian’s airfields into some of the largest runways in World War II. Out of 8,000 Japanese soldiers, only 252 survived. For seven days the island’s Japanese garrison refused to surrender and were practically annihilated. Attaching mobile ramps to landing vehicles, Navy Seabees enabled Marines of the 5th Amphibious Corps to scale the lower cliffs on the northwest-side of the island. The few beaches that did exist were heavily fortified by the Japanese, assuring that any direct attack by US forces would result in heavy losses. In some places the cliffs were 15 feet tall, making them practically impassible.
However, the island's coral cliffs presented a unique obstacle.
Enola Gay bomber after strike at Hiroshima, entering Tinian airfieldĬourtesy Library of Congress Recipient: Northern Marianas Humanities Council Award Amount: $91,816.60Īs US forces advanced through the Pacific in the summer of 1944, they targeted islands they hoped to use as staging grounds for the bombing of Japan.
