#Tinian island

[theworldatwar]

USMC Staff Sergeant Federico Claveria of Baldwin Park, California stops to give sweets to a Japanese child in the internment camp on Tinian Island - Aug 1944

[carbone14]

Marines en position de tir sur les positions japonaises – Tinian – Bataille de Tinian – Campagne des îles Mariannes et Palaos – Guerre du Pacifique – 1944

©Naval History and Heritage Command - USMC 88107

[captain-price-unofficially]

The U.S. Navy battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) bombarding Tinian, 14 June 1944

[amanitacz]

Model of the Mariana trench with undersea.

Link to see more about this model on Turbosquid.com:

https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/mariana-trench-2007367?referral=amanitacz

Link to the whole gallery:

https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Artists/AmanitaCZ?referral=amanitacz

Link to the software:

http://www.cazaba.cz/

[dronescapesvideos]

B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay". Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands, late 1945.

➤FLYING THE B-29: https://youtu.be/Jg29WXAjTbM ➤U.S. AIRCRAFT SERIES: https://dronescapes.video/US

[todaysdocument]

Translation of the Diary of Japanese Serviceman Taroa Kawaguchi Detailing Combat Activity on Saipan

Record Group 407: Records of the Adjutant General's OfficeSeries: World War II Operations ReportsFile Unit: 327-INF(165)-.020 27th INF DIV Misc Hist'l Saipan 165th INF RGT, 11 Jun - 7 Jul '44

The following diary translation is forwarded for your information. It furnishes an interesting insight on the character of the Jap soldier.

Diary belonged to Tarao Kawaguchi, of the Mekahara Unit which in turn belongs to the Homare Unit 11945 (43rd Div. Hosp. Unit). Diary was found 19 July at TA 260 G.

June 11, 1944:---

Second air raid since landing on Saipan Island. Same as before. The enemy bombing was carried out in large pattern bombing and received terrific bombardment right after noon and toward the evening. The raid occurred while we NCO's were cooking and didn't have a chance to take cover in the air raid shelters. Altho our AA put up a terrific barrage and our planes intercepted them, it seems that the damage was considerable. Cheran-Kanoa and Tinian area was burning terrifically.

JUNE 12, 1944:---

Same as yesterday, the enemy bombers appeared. Spent the whole day in the air raid shelter and it seems that I have Dengue fever.

JUNE 13, 1944:---

Also today the enemy bombarded. Each squad dug air raid shelters by order of commander. In the afternoon enemy fleets appeared off shore and commenced furious naval bombardment. Seems as if the bombardment was concentrated around Charen-Kanoa and Garapan. The hospital was hit and burning. During the night our second company supplied material to the hospital. Lt. Chura and 2nd Lt. Yamaguchi of the hospital units are high spirits. We carried the patients and the supplies to the air raid shelters.

JUNE 14, 1944:---

Toward the latter part of the day naval bombardment and bombing was prevalent. Today we teansferred to the air raid shelters on the left side of the valley. In the evening, prepared to move medical supplies and tents. Commenced moving at twelve O'clock. However, it was very far so it took us till dawn. On this day the enemy landed and the time has come at last.

June 15, 1944:---

During the evening the Unit Commander and a large part of the NCO's departed for the Saipan Shrine for the treatment of patients, 1st Lt. Kruieda performed bravely and courageously treating the patients under terriffic naval barrage, and he should be considered as the ideal model for the medics section. We administered medical aid to one patient and it was the first time we carried out medical aid since landing on Saipan Island. Under terrific naval bombardment, so impressive ceremony for our country was carried out at the Saipan Shrine. During the night transferred the patients to the 3rd company on top of the hill. Upon returning departed immediately for the ricks.

JUNE 16, 1944:---

Due to the movement of the previous day I was tired so rested in the air raid shelter.

JUNE 17, 1944:---

I and the other NCO's plus five men were ordered by the commander to secure medical supplies. Today the enemy planes are in their glory (strafing and bombing at will).

JUNE 18, 1944:---

The patients are coming in ever increasing numbers. During the evening, transported some medical supplies to the pharmicists section. Today, the strafing by enemy planes was terrific.

JUNE 19, 1944:---

Today the order was given for the distribution of duty. I was placed in the pharmicists section commanded by 2nd Lt. Yamaguchi. [full document and transcription at link]

[usafphantom2]

Thomas Ferebee, bombadier of B-29 Bomber Enola Gay, with Norden bombsight, Tinian, Mariana Islands, 6 Aug 1945

@VoicesofWW2 via X

[zvaigzdelasas]

The US Air Force plans to bring the Pacific island airfield that launched the atomic bombings of Japan back into commission as it tries to broaden its basing options in the event of any hostilities with China, the service’s top officer in the Pacific says. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, told Nikkei Asia in an interview published this week that North Airfield on the island of Tinian will become an “extensive” facility once work has been completed to reclaim it from the jungle that has grown over the base since the last US Army Air Force units abandoned it in 1946.[...]

Tinian is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, some 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) west of Hawaii in the Pacific. Only about 3,000 people live on the 39-square-mile island.[...]

The Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget request shows $78 million has been sought for construction projects on Tinian island.

21 Dec 23

[petermorwood]

Interesting to see this post cross my dash again.

I was watching a movie late last night and, with that post's criticism of unbroken long speeches and suggestions of how to break them, here's an example of how a very famous one was done.

The movie I was watching was "Jaws", and the long speech is The Indianapolis Monologue. There are several YouTube clips, but a couple of them leap straight in at the start of the speech.

The clip below has the lead up to The Speech which, IMO, matters a lot in preparing for what follows; there's not just a Mood Whiplash - cheery drunk to OMG Whut - to make the viewers pay attention, but also what I mentioned in the other post, an entirely legitimate reason for an "As You Know" speech.

One character, Hooper, knows the significance of "USS Indianapolis" - his shocked-almost-sober reaction makes that very plain - but the other character, Brody (and the audience he represents), doesn't know and needs told.

In addition (also as mentioned in the other post) despite being a single-character monologue, the speech is "broken" by cutting away from the speaker, Quint, to reaction shots from the other characters present. Even when Quint is on-screen he isn't centre-screen, Hooper is visible in the background where his silent, apprehensive attention accompanies the story he's hearing.

*****

This can be done in words, too: inserting other actions or reactions by means of paragraph breaks is the equivalent of visual cut-aways, and serve the same functions - making a lot of words from one character into several smaller groups of words, while showing the cumulative effect of all those words on other listeners.

Even a soliloquy with no-one else listening benefits from occasional breaks describing what the speaker is doing, how their emotions show, where they are etc. It's all far better than A Wall Of Text.

The entire speech is 438 words, and Robert Shaw delivers them over 3 min 34 sec.

I've got three PDF versions of the "Jaws" screenplay, all different, and this speech varies in every one but are never what's in the movie, so I constructed mine as a transcript from several listenings, and have used paragraph breaks to try matching Shaw's delivery.

Also, as an Exercise For The Scholar (me, anyway) I've inserted and timed the cuts where Quint isn't on screen or speaking to show how short they can be.

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. Just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you’re in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know ... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Huh.

CUT TO BRODY (3 sec) then BACK TO QUINT WHO TAKES A DRINK (2 sec)

They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it’s ... kinda like old squares in a battle, like you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man, that man he start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin’, an’ sometimes the shark go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at you, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites you, and those black eyes roll over white and then, ah, then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in an’ they... Rip you to pieces.

CUT TO BRODY (2 sec) then BACK TO QUINT

Y’know, by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour.

CUT TO BRODY (3 sec) AS QUINT CONTINUES OFFSCREEN

On Thursday mornin', Chief...

BACK TO QUINT

I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Bosun's mate. An’ I thought he was asleep; reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up an’ down in the water, was like a kinda top. Upended... Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist.

CUT TO BRODY (2 sec) then CUT TO HOOPER (2 sec) then BACK TO QUINT

Noon the fifth day, Mister Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us - a young pilot, a lot younger than Mister Hooper. Anyway he saw us and he come in low, and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

*****

For comparison, down below is what it looks like without any paragraph breaks, speech instruction (gravely / incredulous etc.) or screen direction (track right / dolly in / close on / match cut etc.).

(BTW, some of these effects can be used when writing prose, to good effect, but that's for another time.)

This is the Wall of Text effect, and it sometimes turns up on the internet, courtesy of people who don't know how to use Enter except when they're sending a post.

I'm not saying this is how the speech would have looked in the real shooting script, but it might. From my own screenwriting experience, actors don't like being told how to deliver their lines and directors don't like being told how to set up their shots.

There's a bit more flexibility when writing animation, but in both cases crafty writers write so that the way they want a thing done works out as the best way to do it.

Sometimes this trick even works... :->

*****

Here's the Wall Of Text:

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. Just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you’re in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Huh. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it’s kinda like old squares in a battle, like you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man, that man he start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin’, an’ sometimes the shark go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at you, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites you, and those black eyes roll over white and then, ah, then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in an’ they rip you to pieces. Y’know, by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', Chief I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Bosun's mate. An’ I thought he was asleep; reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up an’ down in the water, was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mister Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us - a young pilot, a lot younger than Mister Hooper. Anyway he saw us and he come in low, and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

[usafphantom-2]

The Gekko Type 11 of the 321st Naval Air Group was left abandoned on Tinian Island when the US military landed.

You can see that the Yagi antenna is mounted on the nose.

@Scoabbacos via X

[birdstudies]

August 6, 2023 - Tinian Monarch, Tinian Flycatcher, or Tinian Island Monarch (Monarcha takatsukasae) Found on Tinian Island in the Northern Mariana Islands, these monarchs live in forested and brushy areas. They eat small invertebrates, usually foraging in foliage, alone, in pairs, and in small groups with Rufous Fantails. Only three of their nests have been described, deep cups built from dry leaves, plant fibers, moss, and wool, and sometimes feathers and grass, in trees. Females lay clutches of two or three eggs. They are classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN due to threats in their small range including habitat destruction and degradation, invasive vines, typhoons, and the potential introduction of Brown Tree Snakes from nearby Guam.

[fatehbaz]

85% of natural asphalt is found in the Western hemisphere; the most famous asphalt field is probably the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, but the largest reserves are in Alberta, which hold an estimated 2.2 trillion barrels. In addition to the natural reserves, asphalt has, for the last 100 years, primarily been produced by refining crude oil residue. Asphalt’s most common use is as the binder in blacktop; aggregate makes up the remaining 95% of the dark mix we see on roads and highways. [...]

The largest antique source of asphalt was the Dead Sea, where chunks of seafloor asphalt periodically broke off and rose to the surface. In ancient Egypt, this asphalt was used to waterproof boats [...], as well as roads, canals, and roofs, and it was prized enough that Alexander the Great’s general Antigonus started -- and lost -- a war with the Nabataean Arabs over the Dead Sea’s asphalt. [...]

Asphalt was rare in road construction until it hit the big time in 1867 with the asphalting of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Soon Washington was an “asphalt city,” and the quiet, smooth streets inspired other cities to follow suit. Paving became ever more important with the popular rise of bicycles and then cars. At the turn of the century, refined asphalt was developed and largely supplanted natural asphalt due to its higher quality and volume. This was also the time when concrete emerged as a road paving material, and a competition between concrete and asphalt emerged [...].

O’Reilly closely associates war and asphalt. In World War II, asphalt served many purposes. From the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to Tinian in the Northern Marianas, Navy construction battalions used asphalt to construct airfields and roads on short notice. Over 17,000 tons of asphalt were brought ashore during the Normandy landings. [...] During the Vietnam War, building asphalt runways was fundamental to the American policy of aerial bombardment. Asphalt has continued to be the material of choice for ad-hoc roads and runways built during the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

---

Text by: Alexander Luckmann. “Asphalt and Sand: A Material History of Extraction and Consumption.” Cleveland Review of Books. 13 May 2022.

[captain-price-unofficially]

Tinian scrapheap, 1946. Those are all B-29's that were battle damaged and made it back, or which were damaged on the island in accidents.