Saipan

The island of Saipan is located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of the Mariana Islands and part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States. The smaller island of Tinian lies immediately southwest across the Saipan Channel. The seat of government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is on Saipan.

Saipan is 14 miles (23 kilometers) long and 5 miles (8 kilometers) across at its widest point, for a total area of 46.5 square miles (120 square kilometers). The island is hilly and rises to an elevation of 1,545 feet (471 meters) at Mount Takpochao (Tagpochau).

Tourism and its related industries are the most important economic sector on Saipan. The island has a commercial dock and an international airport. Subsistence crops produced on Saipan include taro, cassava, yams, breadfruit, and bananas.

Saipan was under Spanish sovereignty from 1565 to 1899 and came under German rule from 1899 to 1914. It was made a Japanese mandate in 1920. During World War II the successful U.S.-led Allied invasion and capture of the island in 1944 was one of the fiercest land battles in the Pacific. Some 3,500 U.S. troops died in the fighting, and nearly all the 30,000 Japanese defenders were killed; thousands of Japanese civilians also died, many jumping to their deaths off Banzai Cliff, at the northern end of the island, rather than face capture. Saipan became an important U.S. military air base during the last year of the war, and between 1953 and 1962 it was under U.S. naval jurisdiction. Population (2010), 48,220.