This left the Japanese holding the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, the Palau Islands, and the Mariana Islands. As the battle raged, Smith ordered a contingent of troops to assault Japanese positions by moving across a large, much exposed valley. The Mariana Islands were a strategic location as American capture of th. Although bases in the Marshalls lay fewer than 1,500 miles away, the islands desolate landscapes could not support any kind of large-scale mustering of men and materiel. WWII Army and Army Air Force Casualties. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-saipan. By 8 June, a great assemblage of Navy ships arrived in the Marianas region from various points in the east, from Majuro in the Marshalls to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.8, Having hobbled Japanese air forces in the region by 11 June and, in the two days before D-Day, bombarded Saipans coasts, conducted risky but invaluable reconnaissance, and blown up parts of the coastal reefs, the Navy was now ready to land American personnel on the island.9, Before dawn on D-day, 15 June, Sailors prepared a grand breakfast for the Marines of the 2nd and 4th Divisions, and then it was time to board the amphibian tractors.10, Fifty-six of these vehicles proceeded in lines of four toward the eight beaches that had to be stormed. 18 Oral testimony of William VanDusen, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. I saw my Japanese mother only once after my arrival in Camp Susupe, says Antonieta. The logistical demands of the invasion of Saipan were dizzying. Photo: Corp Angus Robertson/US Marines. Only those killed in action or died of wounds are listed on the Memorial Wall at Slow progress led to a quarrel between the U.S. Marine commander, General Howlin Mad Holland Smith, and the army divisional commander, but gradually the Japanese were confined in a small area in the north of the island. See Kirby, War Against Japan, 431. . 3,100 killed, 326 missing, 13,099 wounded; total cumulative to D+46. The bloodiest single day in the history of the United States military was June 6, 1944, with 2,500 soldiers killed during the Invasion of Normandy on D-Day. The Landing and First Phase of the Battle . To learn more about an individual, you may contact Bill Beigel for research options for that person by clicking "Submit Search Request.". Of the four commanders of the 2nd Marine Divisions initial assault battalion, none escaped this phase of the battle unharmed.17. But after Tj failed to shuffle his Cabinet due to excessive internal hostility, he conceded defeat. For the Americans, the victory was the most costly to date in the Pacific War: out of 71,000 who landed, 2,949were killed and 10,464wounded. The Battle for Saipan. While the battle officially ended on 9 July, Japanese resistance still persisted with Captain Sakae ba and 46 other soldiers who survived with him during the last banzai charge. Oba's resistance was so successful that it caused the reassignment of a commander. The cliffs are also part of the National Historic Landmark District Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, which also includes the American landing beaches, the B-29 runways of Isley Field, and the surviving Japanese infrastructure of the Aslito and Marpi Point airfields. Saipan, June 1944: Naval bombardment in support of U.S. Marine Corps ground operations. The amphibian tractors were not functioning as planned. The Americans gradually developed tactics for clearing the caves by using flamethrower teams supported by artillery and machine guns. In wave after wave, the Japanese overran parts of several U.S. battalions, engaging in hand-to-hand combat and killing or wounding more than a thousand Americans before being repelled by howitzers and point-blank machine-gun fire. As a fully Japanese adult civilian, she had to remain in the Japanese section. Every thing would have to come from great distance over perilous waters. [clarification needed] The reports had a devastating effect on Japanese opinion; mass suicides were now seen as defeat, not evidence of an "Imperial Way". endstream endobj startxref Seabees with the CWS had 24 ready for the battle. Their armor was not heavy enough to withstand the barrage from Japanese artillery, and their agility on rough ground proved lacking.16 Troops scattered in several directions as hilltop snipers tried to pick them off one by one. 35 Oral testimony of Cristino S. Dela Cruz, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. Naval Abbreviations", OPNAV They were using flamethrowers, and my back had been burned. The role Tinian was to play in the war did not end, however, with its capture from the . 155 0 obj <>stream In June 1942, Japan had seized the remote, sparsely inhabited islands of Attu read more, In the Battle of Attu, the main conflict of the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II (1939-45), American and Japanese armies fought from May 11 to May 30, 1943, for control of Attu, a small, sparsely inhabited island at the far western end of Alaskas Aleutian chain in read more, The Battle of Iwo Jima was an epic military campaign between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. Behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. On February 19, 1945, men of the United States Marine Corps invaded the island of Iwo Jima, part of the Volcano Islands chain, in the North Pacific.This invasion, known as Operation Detachment, was a phase of the Pacfic Theatre of World War II.The American goal was to establish multiple airfields that would allow escort fighters to accompany long-range bombers in their attacks on the Japanese . The deadliest battle in WWII, Dnieper, had 1.58 million casualties. When it happened, in June and July 1944, the conquest of Saipan became the most daringand disturbingoperation in the U.S. war against Japan to date. By the end of the day, some 20,000 troops had established a beachhead on Saipan; however, the U.S. had suffered approximately 2,000 casualties in the process. "The Campaign in the Marianas" Annex 3 to Enclosure A, Henry I. Shaw, Jr., Bernard C. Nalty, and Edwin T. Turnbladh, Central Pacific Drive, vol. 3 By Greg Bradsher Enlarge Adm. Mineichi Koga. Ben L. Salomon, Pvt. The WW2 Casualties Database is a work in progress and a huge undertaking. Gen. Smith and V Amphibious Corps anticipated that taking Saipan would be difficult and they wanted to have a mechanized flamethrowing capability. cit. "[32] The victory would prove to be one of the most important strategic moments during the war in the Pacific Theater, as the Japanese archipelago was now within striking distance of United States' B-29 bombers. Even so, yard for yard, Betiothe main island of Tarawa atollwas the toughest fortified position the Marines would ever face in World War II. Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. 37, No. Did you know? Documents include operation plans, operation orders, field orders, intelligence reports, action reports, periodic reports, administrative orders, official correspondence, studies, comments and recommendations, and memoranda concerning Operation Forager in the Mariana Islands, specifically the battle of Saipan (15 June - 9 . Two days later on July 9, 1944, Saipan was declared secure, but the horror didn't end there. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. [23] Oba's holdout lasted for over a year (approximately 16 months) before finally surrendering on 1 December 1945, three months after the official surrender of Japan. STATES, MARINE Research, development, and procurement made that a long-term prospect. 8 Kirby, War Against Japan, 431; Rottman, World War II, 378. Skip to main content (Press Enter). Click to View Online Archive. The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June to 9 July 1944 as part of Operation Forager. cit. 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Bain and Minneapolis (CA-36), LCDR Joseph W. Callahan and Ralph Talbot (DD-390), LT Albert P. Scoofer Coffin of Torpedo Ten, MAtt1/c Leonard R. Harmon and CDR Mark H. Crouter of San Francisco (CA-38), CDR Frank A. EricksonFirst Helicoptar SAR, LCDR Bernard F. McMahon and Drum (SS-228), LTJG Melvin C. Roach, Guadalcanal Fighter Pilot, CDR Joseph J. Rochefort and "Station Hypo", Chief Machinist William A. Smith and Enterprise (CV-6), LCDR William J. The Japanese used many caves in the volcanic landscape to delay the attackers, by hiding during the day and making sorties at night. To surrender, a person would have to run into the crossfire, as Vickys family discovered. Despite heavy U.S. casualties, the . "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The facility exploded with a tremendous cloud of smoke and flame.18, Japanese resistance proved far greater than anticipated, not least of all because the latest intelligence reports had underestimated troop levels.19 In reality, troop levels, in excess of 31,000 men, were as much as double the estimates.20 For at least a month, Japanese forces had been fortifying the island and bolstering its forces. Worse still, General Hideki Tojo (1884-1948), Japans militaristic prime minister, had publicly promised that the United States would never take Saipan. The 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division and the Army's 27th Infantry Division participated. In intensive fighting, U.S forces gradually drove the Japanese defense from their nearly impregnable position in the heights. 34 Oral testimony of Sister Antonieta Ada, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. We were close, Lieutenant William VanDusen remembers: Heavier ships were firing over our heads onto the beach. Eleven fire support ships covered the Marine landings. 46 Castro, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. [29] During the war, his commanders had requested that he receive the Medal of Honor for his actions; however, his initial award was the Silver Star. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The next morning, the troops were joined by U.S. Army reinforcements and began pushing inland toward Aslito Airfield and Japanese forces in the southern and central parts of the island. 40 VanDusen, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. 5/9/1945- Okinawa, Japan: Eleven Okinawa civilians who were huddled in this hillside cave were rescued when a passing Marine patrol heard a baby crying. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Fulfilling Our Nation's Promise. Some of these troops were Koreans drafted into the Japanese forces. Although U.S. submarines had managed to sink most of the transports to Saipan from Manchuria, the majority of these troops survived to supplement a full 13,000 men to the 15,000 or so already on site.21, D-day casualties were highas many as 3,500 men in the first 24 hours of the invasion butin spite of these, there were now 20,000 combat-ready troops on shore by sunset with more to come.22 These reinforcements could not arrive too soon, as the Japanese defense doubled down and changed tack by deploying tanks and infantry in the relative darkness of night.23. On June 15, 1944, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II (1939-45), U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining a crucial air base from which the U.S. could launch its new long-range B-29 bombers directly at Japans home islands. To safeguard this veritable armada, he ordered that transports and supply ships clear the area by nightfall and head east out of harms way.27, Spruance had good reason to worry, not necessarily about the beachheads, which appeared to be secure before D-day-plus-1 had ended, but about the First Mobile Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The landings[15] began at 07:00 on 15 June 1944. U.S. Marines on Saipan, Mariana Islands, 1944, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Saipan. Vice-admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the naval commander who led the Japanese carriers at Pearl Harbor, also committed suicide in the closing stages of the battle. The Durrani Empire also suffered heavy losses . (80-JO-63354) Enlarge Title page of the ATIS-translated copy of the Z Plan. 9 For a vivid and thorough account of the reconnaissance and detonations accomplished by the Underwater Demolition Teams swimmers, see Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. Naval bombardment of the island had started two days earlier on the 13th, and had some effect in terms of weakening the Japanese defenses, but no amount of shelling could shake the Japanese soldiers' resolve. From: Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi "Breaching the Marianas: the Battle for Saipan." If you would like to make a contribution to help to complete the database, please contact bill.beigel@ww2research.com, with thanks! USS Twining (DD-540), on patrol in the channel between Saipan and Tinian, afforded its Sailors a nightmarish perspective on the beaches. The list of U.S. Navy personnel killed in the Battle of Saipan, the Battle of Tinian, and . An armada of 535 U.S. ships with 127,000 troops, including 77,000 Marines, had taken the Marshall Islands, and American high command next sought to capture the Mariana Islands, which formed the critical front line for Japans defense of its empire. 5 See the oral testimony of Professor Harris Martin, in Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific War, compiled and edited by Bruce M. Petty (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002), 157. The Saipan battle began with a naval bombardment on June 13, 1944. Japanese casualties were extreme an estimated 4,000 dead. open at the sides.43 Drainage, especially from the privies, was of serious concern.44, An inmates experience of Camp Susupe, as it was called, depended largely on his or her ethnicity, gender, and combat status. U.S. Marines gave Oba the nickname "The Fox. ), 166. from the official USMC Chronology, are being added at: UNITED On April 1, 1945Easter Sundaythe Navys Fifth Fleet and more than 180,000 U.S. Army and Marine Corps troops descended on the Pacific island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan. date order, as well as background to battles and actions Image courtesy of US Navy. From Sep 19 to Dec 16, 1944 a long, bloody, drawn-out battle raged through the rugged terrain of the Hrtgen Forest. ), 37. The Battle of Okinawa. The campaign on Saipan had brought many American casualties, and it also heralded the kind of fighting which would be . hbbd```b`` AiD2 RLU;}0 &X He was awarded the Purple Heart and was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class in 1945.[22][importance?]. . Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff, along with a number of surviving isolated Japanese fortifications, are recognized as historic sites on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June - 9 July 1944. For the empire of Japan, the casualties were heavier. In Breaching the Marianas: the Battle for Saipan, author John C. Chapin, a Marine on Saipan, described the chaos around him that morning, with its bodies lying in mangled and grotesque positions; blasted and burned out pillboxes; the burning wrecks of LVTs [landing vehicles] ; the acrid smell of high explosives; the shattered trees; and the churned up sand littered with discarded equipment.. Marines in World War II Commemorative Series by Captain John C. Chapin U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Ret) A Marine enters the outskirts of Garapan, Saipan, through the torii gate of a Shinto Shrine. Saito had expected the Japanese navy to help him drive the Americans from the island, but the Imperial Fleet had suffered a devastating defeat in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19-20, 1944) and never arrived at Saipan. Victory at Okinawa cost more than 49,000 American casualties, including about 12,000 deaths. 4 Harold J. Goldberg, D-Day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007), 3. 1 - BY NAME 1941-45, CABOT Landings continued into the night. . On the fate of the remaining civilians on the island, Saito said, "There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. CORPS CASUALTIES. [35], Saipan also saw a change in the way Japanese war reporting was presented on the home front. 268-269, there were 3,144 U.S. servicemen (both Army & Marine Corps) who were killed or died of their wounds and 10,952 that were wounded in action. [23][24] After the battle, Oba and his soldiers led many civilians throughout the jungle of the island to escape capture by the Americans, while also conducting guerrilla-style attacks on pursuing forces. 2 - by DATE, return [20][21] Future Hollywood actor Lee Marvin was among the many Americans wounded. Battle of Little Bighorn. The plan had the support of U.S. Army Air Force planners because the airfields on Saipan were large enough to support B-29 operations, within range of the Japanese home islands, and unlike a China-based alternative, was not open to Japanese counter-attacks once the islands were secure. The date was 9 July, more than three weeks since the start of the invasion.41 Now began the work of tending and processing the prisoners, both civilian and military. return Sait organized his troops into a line anchored on Mount Tapochau in the defensible mountainous terrain of central Saipan. This list of Marine Corps casualties - those who died or were killed - is compiled from: USMC Casualty Cards (mc), American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC or bm), POW/MIA Accounting Agency (pm), and ; States Lists (na, from National Archives) sites. cit. Electric lights at the camp were conspicuously left on overnight to attract other civilians with the promise of three warm meals and no risk of being shot in combat accidentally. The Battle of Saipan (15 June to 9 July, 1944) was a key Pacific battle during World War II, fought between the armed forces of the United States and Japan. By 16:15 on 9 July, Admiral Turner announced that Saipan was officially secured. . The Battle of Saipan lasted from June 15 to July 9, 1944. The joint Japanese army and navy garrison had some 27,000 men. The Americans tried numerous times to hunt them down but failed due to their speed and stealth. 42 Martin, in Saipan: Oral Histories (op. They were the first African-American Marines to see combat in World War II. The island became the first B-29 base in the Pacific. His objections were routed through formal channels as well as bypassing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appealing directly to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and President Franklin D. On 15 June, he gave the order to attack. Note the extensive cultivated areas(80-G-238385). The American losses were also high. Just under 3, 000 Americans were killed and more than 10, 000 were wounded. Over the next several weeks, ferocious Japanese resistance inflicted heavy casualties on U.S. troops before the Americans were finally able read more, In late January 1944, a combined force of U.S. Marine and Army troops launched an amphibious assault on three islets in the Kwajalein Atoll, a ring-shaped coral formation in the Marshall Islands where the Japanese had established their outermost defensive perimeter in World War read more, In the Battle of Tarawa (November 20-23, 1943) during World War II (1939-45), the U.S. began its Central Pacific Campaign against Japan by seizing the heavily fortified, Japanese-held island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The Marines were bringing in prisoners even before we got there, he says, and in the beginning, everybody was kept under guard no matter if they were Japanese, Korean, or Chamorros, the term for indigenous islanders. The element of surprise was the main factor in casualties being so low. When it ended, at least 23,000 Japanese troops were dead, and more than 1,780 had been captured.47 Nearly 15,000 civilians languished in U.S. custody. With Saipans airfields soon to be operational (as well as those of Tinian and Guam, which the Americans would surely get in due course) and with Japanese air power having been all but eliminated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, there was no protecting the home islands from aerial bombardment.54, Adam Bisno, PhD, NHHC Communication and Outreach Division, June 2019. They also called in the operations reserves, the Armys 27th Infantry Division.26, The unexpected difficulties on the beaches also prompted Admiral Spruance to bolster the naval defense by committing still more ships to the operation. "[citation needed] Shortly after Saipan was taken, a meeting at the Imperial General Headquarters was convened where it was decided that a symbolic change of leadership should be made: Tj would step aside and Emperor Hirohito would have less involvement in day-to-day military affairs, even though he was defined as both head of state and the Generalissimo of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces according to the Meiji Constitution of 1889. The [Japanese] are coming after us, Spruance said, and they were bringing with them 28 destroyers, 5 battleships, 11 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 9 carriers (5 fleet, 4 light) with somewhere near 500 aircraft total.28. On April 1, 1945, more than 60,000 soldiers and US Marines of the US Tenth Army stormed ashore at Okinawa, in the final island battle before an anticipated invasion of mainland Japan. The news of the 22 February 1941 raid of 427 Amsterdam Jews made a deep impression on the Amsterdam population. Harris Martin. Today the sites are a memorial and Japanese people visit to console the victims' souls.[27][28]. American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC or bm). 31 Rottman, World War II, 376; Heinrichs and Gallicchio, Implacable Foes, 92. One of the young sons succumbed to sniper fire just as the family was surrendering to U.S. Marines, who were trying to load everyone onto a truck bound for the relative safety of an American lines.35, Still less fortunate families did not find a cave or a hole in which to hide. cit. The Battle of Saipan began on June 15, 1944, when the U.S. forces launched an attack on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands to gain an airbase within a direct striking distance of mainland Japan. cit. A D-Day of 15 June 1944 saw the island assaulted by the V Amphibious Corps (VAC), consisting of the 2nd and 4th MarDivs, with the 6th and 8th Marines conducting landings on the northern-most beaches. Two U.S. Marine divisions began landings in the southwest of the island on June 15; they were joined two days later by an Army division. That area was all in flames because the Japanese had a lot of storage tanks there, remembers Marie Soledad Castro, then a young girl resident on Saipan and whose father was a dockworker.6 The raids continued. Interested in participating in the Publishing Partner Program? In the early 1960s the absence of speed limit indications on Dutch motorways saw serious accidents on the rise, so the Rijkspolitie (State police) was tasked with finding a suitable vehicle for high-speed patrol. His entire cabinet resigned with him. 5", United States Army Center of Military History, "Selected June Dates of Marine Corps Historical Significance", The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 19361945, Battle of Saipan The Final Curtain, David Moore, Japan's renegade hero gives Saipan new hope, When Soldiers Kill Civilians: The Battle for Saipan, 1944, "NHL nomination for Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island", "Pentagon salutes military service of Hispanic World War II veterans", "The Marianas and the Great Turkey Shoot", Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan, 18 images depicting the surrender of the famous "hold-out" Japanese forces under the command of Captain Oba in December 1945, Small Unit Actions: The Fight on Tanapag Plain; 27th Division 6 July 1944, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Saipan&oldid=1141410797, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 23:07. cit. [25] Although Tj agreed to resign, Emporer Hirohito blocked his resignation because he considered Tj to be Japan's strongest war leader. In addition to William O'Brien, Ben L. Salomon and Thomas A. Baker, Gunnery Sergeant Robert H. McCard and PFC Harold G. Epperson, were each posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. She was very weak and could hardly talk. Meanwhile, Navy civil engineers (Seabees) delineated a plan for the camp and ordered the construction of shelters and other facilities. Goldberg, D-Day, 3. 2 Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio, Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 19441945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 94. At one point, the Japanese soldiers and civilians were almost captured by the Americans as they hid in a clearing and ledges of a mountain, some were less than 20 feet (6.1 m) above the heads of the Marines, but the Americans failed to see them. Holland Smith said: "It was the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive [] it opened the way to the Japanese home islands. The naval force consisted of the battleships Tennessee and California, the cruisers Birmingham and Indianapolis, the destroyers Norman Scott, Monssen, Coghlan, Halsey Powell, Bailey, Robinson, and Albert W. Grant. cit. Fighting with fanatic resistance, nearly the . to CZIVA. The first and second battalions of the 105th had nearly been wiped out, with 406 killed and an additional 512 wounded. . Japanese military casualties from 1937-1945 have been estimated at 1,834,000, of which 1,740,000 were killed or missing. The BATTLE OF IWO JIMA: On 19 February 1945, Marines landed on Iwo Jima in what was the largest all-Marine battle in history. . In mid-1944, the next stage in the U.S. plan for the Pacific was to breach Japan's defensive perimeter in the Mariana Islands and build bases there for the new . Direct ), 49. Saipan had a significant Japanese civilian population. %PDF-1.6 % Omissions? These would become part of the National Historic Landmark District as Landing Beaches; Aslito/Isley Field; & Marpi Point, Saipan Island, designated in 1985. Out of solidarity with fellow-Jewish citizens and resentment of the Nazis' actions in the capitol, a general strike, was announced for 25 February 1941. Naval History 1 Woodburn S. Kirby, The War Against Japan, vol. Department of War created these lists. All Rights Reserved. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}1511N 14545E / 15.183N 145.750E / 15.183; 145.750. With the capture of Saipan, the American military was now only 1,300mi (1,100nmi; 2,100km) away from the home islands of Japan. For days, Sailors had been watching the action on the shore from Sheridans decks. National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawai'i; Contributed by Ivy Hoffman Mentored by Mrs. Erin Sullivan Cab Calloway School of the Arts 2021-2022 .

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