Which country is Saipan in?

Saipan is the capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas and the largest island in the Northern Mariana Islands. It is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean at 145 degrees east longitude and 15 degrees north latitude, 200 kilometers north of Guam, between the Philippine Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It faces the Philippine Sea to the southwest and the Pacific Ocean to the northeast.

Saipan is about 21 kilometers long, about 9.7 kilometers at its widest point, and covers an area of ??about 122 square kilometers. The highest point is 466 meters above sea level. The annual average temperature is 27°C, and it has a tropical maritime climate. . The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands had a population of approximately 55,000 people in 2016, 90% of whom lived on Saipan; Garapan is the administrative center of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Surrounded by water, Saipan has stable weather and abundant sunshine throughout the year, making it a paradise for sun lovers and water sports enthusiasts.

In Saipan, major hotels and beach areas offer various water activities such as windsurfing, diving, snorkeling, jet boating, parasailing and fishing. The most unique diving spot in Saipan, the Blue Hole, is a must-visit cave diving destination for diving enthusiasts.

The ruins of World War II are also an important tourist attraction on the island. Various relics such as the wreckage of fighter planes, tanks and warships that are exposed above the water and buried on the seabed and in the jungle have now become tourist attractions.

Extended information:

Historical overview of Saipan

The Chamorro people are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, arriving around 1500 BC To the Mariana Islands.

Magellan discovered Guam on March 6, 1521, during his circumnavigation of the world. In January 1565, the Spanish general Legazpi's fleet stopped at Guam on its way from Mexico to the Philippines and declared that Spain owned all the islands in the area.

In 1668, Jesuit Father Sanvi Torres came to Guam from Manila, Philippines, and named the islands where Guam and Saipan are located as the Mariana Islands after the widow of King Philip IV of Spain. Smallpox vaccination began on Saipan in 1880, so demographic data were accumulated. There were 760 people in Saipan that year, which increased to 849 in 1887.

In April 1898, war broke out between the United States and Spain, and Spain was defeated and surrendered due to its exhausted military strength. On December 10, 1898, the two parties signed the "Contract of Paris". Spain ceded the Philippine Islands, Guam and the island of Puerto Rico in the Americas to the United States, and the United States paid Spain $20 million.

At the same time, Spain sold the Palau Islands, Caroline Islands and Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific to Germany for US$4.2 million.

At the beginning of World War I, Japan declared war on Germany. In October 1914, the Japanese army invaded Saipan and seized control of the Northern Mariana Islands from Germany. After the end of World War I, the League of Nations authorized Japan to take custody of all islands owned by Germany in the Pacific before the war on May 19, 1919.

Japan focused on the development of sugar cane cultivation and sugar refining industry in Saipan. In 1934, it began to build airports and other military facilities on Saipan. In 1941, there were more than 30,000 Japanese civilians and soldiers on Saipan, and there were about 4,000 local indigenous people.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, triggering the Pacific War. On December 10 of that year, Guam was captured by the Japanese army. From 1942 to 1943, after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Guadalcanal, the United States gained the initiative in the war.

In 1944, the U.S. military changed the "island-by-island attack" tactic to the "leapfrog" tactic, that is, directly seizing strategic locations across the secondary islands defended by the Japanese army. The first targets of the attack were Saipan and Japan. Guam.

On June 15, 1944, the U.S. military landed in the southwest of Saipan and occupied the Japanese airport in the south of Saipan two days later. Then they launched an attack northward and captured the commanding heights of Saipan on June 26. It was not until December 1, 1945, that the last 48 Japanese soldiers walked out of the jungle and surrendered to the US military. After this battle, the sea and air control of the Mariana Islands were completely controlled by the US military.

In 1947, the United Nations authorized the United States to administer the Western Pacific islands such as the Northern Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, and Marshall Islands. In 1962, Saipan became the capital of the trusteeship.

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