U.S. Marines try to solace Japanese youngster. U.S.

U.S. Marines try to solace Japanese youngster. U.S. Marines try to soothe a crying Japanese child by offering a shiny half of a ration tin. The children are sheltered with their families in an internment camp set up for refugees from the battle areas by U.S. Marine Civil Affairs authorities on Saipan Island in the Central Pacific. Restoration of normal civilian life is proceeding rapidly on the Marianas island where organized Japanese resistance was ended on July 8, 1944, after 25 days of intensive fighting. Saipan, formerly a key base in the Japanese inner defense system, is only 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from Japan. Its loss was described as an "unprecedently great national crisis" by Tokyo, and the Japanese cabinet resigned, following the U.S. victory.