RIP, Pied Piper of Saipan

[MrBern]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_re_us/obit_gabaldon
MIAMI - Guy Gabaldon, who as an 18-year-old Marine private single-handedly persuaded more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers to surrender in the World War II battle for Saipan, has died. He was 80.
"My actions prove that God takes care of idiots," he wrote

 

[Story]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5770657

And another really good interview, this time from the WAR TIMES JOURNAL
http://www.wtj.com/articles/gabaldon/

WTJ: Many people talk about what good soldiers Japanese troops made. Did your first hand experience support that?

Gabaldon: I never ceased to be amazed at the stupid carelessness of the Japanese. Time after time, whenever I got the drop on them, they had left themselves completely exposed. The first time it happened I suspected a trap, but later I realized that they were just plain "baka" [stupid]. Good soldiers, hell - they lost every battle against the Marines whether it was at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, the Marshalls, Iwo Jima, and later even on their home turf, Okinawa.

It is hard to understand how and why the Japs would be so careless in their guard duty, but the proof is in the puddin'. I do not believe that I could have taken so many prisoners if the Japs had been a little more cautious, and many of them would be alive today except for their lack of vigilance.