Menu Agingan Bay Airport Bunkers Bird Island Bonzai Cliff Country Club Beach Forbidden Island Garapan Street Market German Bell Tower Great Views Grotto Harbor Invasion Beach Isley Field Jeffrey's Beach Kalabera Cave Ladder Beach Lake Susupe Last Command Post Lau Lau Bay Lighthouse Managaha Island Memorial Park Micro Beach Mt. Tapochao Nafutan Penisula Noa Victoria Obyan Beach Old Japanese Hospital Old Japanese Jail Old Man by the Sea Orchids Pau Pau Beach Sand Castles Sugar King Park Suicide Cliff Sunsets Talafofo Falls Then - Now Saipan Stories. Guest Book E-Mail Me Home Nafutan Peninsula The name Nafutan was changed sometime after WWII to Naftan. Naftan Peninsula is the Southern most part of Saipan. . Pre-war road still remains. Cave. Inside the cave. Nothing has changed there for the past 65 years making Naftan Peninsula perfect for the boney stomper, WWII buff, and view seeker, however, I rarely see anyone there. Nafutan Peninsula was a U.S. military blunder involving two U.S. battlefield generals, one was fired from duty during the battle. The peninsula is an ideal area to defend and nearly impossible to attack. It took 9 days to conquer the steep cliffs, large plateaus, numerous caves, and dense brush. Today, the 4-wheel-drive road made before the battle still remains. It runs along the high ridge over the entire length of the peninsula. Two roads break off the crest and lead down to the high ocean cliffs to the east. Numerous hiking trails lead to overlooks, caves, large crevasses, WWII bunkers, Japanese canons, antiaircraft enclosures, Obyan Beach, and much more that I have yet to explore. Japanese canon at Nafutan Point.

. . Eastern Side. World War II bullets everywhere. 10 minute hike to get through this crevasse. I thought the sun went down early. Rugged terrain at Naftan Point. The white patches are bullet holes in the rock.

Stairs leading to a spotter's overlook.

View from the overlook.

Anti-aircraft gun bunker.

Thousands of fortified caves.

Exploded bombs everywhere.

There's a reason why they call these guys Coconut Crabs. Those claws he's hiding behind actually can open a coconut, but it takes a long time and he really has to want that coconut open.

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I found this marble marker with writing carved on both sides in an out-of-the-way part of the jungle on Naftan Peninsula.

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Here is an unexploded 500-pound bomb I found in the jungle of North Naftan and the local resident, a baby coconut crab. I wonder if he ever tried to open that hugh mutant coconut in his front yard.

For the year after the Battle of Saipan until the end of WWII, massive numbers of bombs were stored in Nafutan waiting to be dropped on Japan. Thousands of ordnance bunkers were built; most were nothing more than a shallow hole in the ground. When the war ended the U.S. military tried to dispose of the bombs but not all. I took these three pictures of one of those open-air bomb bunkers with at least twenty 500-pound live bombs in various states of decay with many more scattered around the surrounding area. I found these on the Eastern side of Nafutan Peninsula.

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