Dark Secrets Hidden in America’s Most Isolated Islands (nobody comes here)

We may have just been on the craziest trip of our lives. — Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are currently stranded actually in the middle of nowhere. — What was initially planned to be a 4-day trip turned into a multi-week expedition into truly some of the most remote and untouched parts OF THE WORLD. — A leg is still moving. — There was no publicly available way to reach some of the places we went to. And heading there means navigating days in full open water right above the absolute deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench. We're honestly happy we made it back alive and are here to tell you the story. After finding ourselves in so many more adventures than we originally expected, we've created three distinct adventures we'll be publishing over the next 3 weeks in a miniseries about our journey here. Welcome to our unexpected and extraordinary journey in America's wildest and least known territory of the Northern Marana Islands. As we searched for the world's most hidden and untold stories, a set of islands grabbed our attention. The Northern Marana Islands, a US territory we hadn't heard of before. So, we called a few of our American friends, and no one had heard of it either. Strange. But as we dug deeper, we found some jaw-dropping details about this place. They speak more than just English here, as they also have two of their own local languages. And without these islands, World War II may never have turned out like it eventually did, as the most devastating destruction in history was hidden and launched from here. But how come barely anybody has ever heard of this place? Is it intentionally kept a secret? Or has the world simply forgotten about it? In our first story of the series, we'll be exploring two of the main inhabited islands of Saipan and Tinyan, where a lot of dark history from World War II hides. Our main goal will be to find an elder who was alive during World War II to tell us their stories, as well as painting a deeper picture of what this place really is. But our start was more than confusing. will be there at all time before the aircraft. — Thank you for attending. — There's only one other American on this flight and both of us got like pulled to the side because the system said that we weren't allowed to go there and then it was just us and I was like why can't I board? It's like I'm going home essentially. You know, — I also don't know who was going to this island. Like there's not a single person including Americans that I've spoken to that know about this place. — I have friends on Hawaii who have never heard of — in Hawaii. — Yeah, in Hawaii. — Wow. — That was sketchy. I never ever had an experience like that before. — Okay. — I fought to enter this plane. Oh gosh, that was sweaty. We were at first confused and a little bit unsettled at why Corey and Stfan almost couldn't board the flight, but this would all start to make sense later as we learned a lot more about the complicated geopolitics of these islands. — We are maybe in the least known American territory and uh we have lots of questions. We're in a pretty funny situation where the woman checking us into our hotel is in her pajamas and she only speaks Chinese. So, we're just eating noodles here at 2:30 in the morning. All good. The room's — Sorry, I don't know. — Uhhuh. It's okay. Cute. Shushi. — This is going to be interesting. Yeah. To be in a place where the more we speak to other Americans about it, the more we realize like nobody has heard of this place. There is no flight from here to the US. If you want to fly to the US, you have to fly back to Asia and then go to the US. — Wow. That's a trip. — That's how like disconnected this place is from the rest of America. — We had planned to be on Saipan for only a couple of days and were hoping to learn about its history during the war. We were also fascinated by the fact that there are two other languages besides English spoken on the island. The first language is Chamorro, brought to Saipan over 4,000 years ago when the seafaring Chamora people settled this island. The second is Carolinian, brought by immigrants from the Caroline Islands who had lost their homes in devastating typhoon in the 19th century. As these are two types of Americans we didn't even know existed. We were determined to meet someone who spoke one of these languages. We only have three days. We have a lot to do. Meeting people that speak other languages other than English. Meeting somebody who remembers the war here. If there's anyone here that does that. And then the day after tomorrow we're going to take the uh a local plane to the small island where the dark history happened. Oh, there's already a tank right there.

You see that? — Oh, damn. Is that a real tank? Japanese flag on it. — Wait, let's I'm going to pull over. — Wow. Now somebody speaks a Korean. — Hi. — Welcome to Saip. — Can I have a picture, please? — Yeah. — How you doing? Are you from here? — I'm from here. Yeah, I'm born here. Yeah. — Like nobody knows about this island. Uh — yeah, no one does, — right? — Yeah. Whenever I fly to the States, they always ask, "Where are you from? " From Saipan. Japan. — No, not Japan. — I love it here. I've traveled to the States to Asia. It doesn't compare — really. — It's so peaceful here and the people are so friendly here. Like it just feels like home. There's no place like it. Nice to meet you for the island. — Thank you. — Usually a young person who lives on a remote island like this will say, "I can't wait to leave. " You know, it's my has been my experience cuz people are like bored and — they just feel like it's too small and there's not enough things to do. And she was like, "I love it here. " — So it's a good sign. — Yeah. This is a real tank. — Yeah. — This is the contrast. You have this beautiful beach here and then you have a destroyed Japanese tank displayed on the side of the road. It's paradise, but also a lot of very dark things happen here. So many different conflicting emotions at the same time. At the start of World War II, Saipan was a full-on Japanese colony, home to 30,000 troops, 30,000 Japanese civilians, and 4,000 Chamoros. It lay on the edge of Japan's absolute national defense zone, a line that Japan needed to defend at all costs to defend its home islands. — Taipan, the Mariana's administrative center, was our first objective. The US, who had joined the war after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, were desperate to get their hands on the Maranas. Because from these islands, the US's advanced bomber planes would be able to reach the Japanese home islands for the first time. On June 15th, 1944, after having shot down 130 of Japan's airplanes that were deployed in the Maranas, the US launched a D-Day beach assault on Saipan. 8,000 men landed on the southwestern beaches of the island, met by Japanese artillery, mortars, and machine guns. The intense landing was day one of a battle that was expected to only last a week, but would drag out to 24 days. US intelligence estimated that the island had about 15,000 troops stationed, but the real number was closer to 30,000. On top of that, the island was an extremely challenging battlefield. The interior of the island was mountainous, dense jungle that hid countless caves and ravines. The flatlands were covered in sugarcane fields where the enemy could easily hide. And on the western coast of the island, full-on urban warfare took place. This tank is one of the many. The island's reefs, beaches, and mountains are covered in the history of the fighting. Hard to imagine it like a human being has been inside of this tank. Having experienced a glimpse of the island's contrasting beauty and history, we continued north along the coast, passing by many abandoned military installation and strangely hotels. As the island is only 12 mi long, it didn't take much time until we reached the northernmost point and a monument that we approached with a heavy heart. — Trigger warning here. This is the suicide cliff. Apparently, Japanese propaganda said that if they got captured, the Japanese people who were living here that they would be tortured or used in prisons or whatever. So, thousands of Japanese people instead of surrendering to the Americans, they jumped off the cliffs here. Oh, bless their souls. During the American invasion, Saipen had become hell on earth for the thousands of Japanese civilians, but most importantly, Shamoros caught in the conflict. They evacuated into designated caves that were dotted all over the island and were trapped between the Japanese army, who forbade them to surrender, and the Marines, who, in the fog of war, sometimes confused them for soldiers. Eventually, the Americans gained ground and pushed the Japanese army north until it became clear to the Japanese that the battle could no longer be won. However, the Japanese Empire considered surrender a disgrace and had painted the US Marines as cruel and bloodthirsty, telling their civilians that if they surrendered, they would be tortured, then murdered. So, as the US troops closed in, the Emperor of Japan commanded a yukai, a suicide charge, where every able-bodied soldier left was to charge into battle without regard for his own life. And all of the remaining civilians and injured soldiers

were told they had only one option left. What happened next was described by witnesses as one of the darkest moments in the entire Pacific War. — It is estimated that more than 5,000 men, women, and children were forced to take their own lives by jumping off from these cliffs, many after the fighting had already finished. There's 31,000 Japanese military [snorts] personnel on this island. — 29,000 were killed. And this US arrived here with 71,000 soldiers. 3,000 were killed. — Yeah. So they like were more than double American soldiers arriving here compared to the amount of Japanese ones that were holding the island. And then some unfortunate Chamorro people who were living here as well were killed in the during the war. This is the final outpost of the Japanese army that still stands here as a memorial. — This is the reality of life and war. And it's not just numbers on a history book. It's a reality. — Yeah. We continued spending almost the whole day driving around the island and were feeling quite low and heavy after what we had just seen. We had spoken to a few locals, but none that had any personal experiences with the war times. And as the sun was about to set in the next few hours, we were on the verge of giving up. when we stopped at a diner to get some food and try to boost our morale and saw an elderly man walk out who had been eating by himself that we were about to let go but instead decided to run after him and say hello. He first seemed a bit busy so we said goodbye but then this magical moment happened — looking at me. — Yes. — How old do you think I am? — I don't know. 85 maybe. — 94. — You're 94? — 94 years old. You carry yourself well, sir. Are you from here? — Yeah, I'm a caipaniac. — Ah, crazy about — Saipan. — You um you speak Chammoro or uh — I'm Chammoro. — You're Chammoro. — I wrote a book about my dad and the invasion of Saipen during the war. We were in the cave for 3 weeks. And uh — you were in a cave for three weeks. — For 3 weeks in the cave hiding. My dad knew the international morcope. So he was reading all the exchanges of lighted morse code from the cave. He was reading everything that was going on. But what I like to do is get together with you. — Yeah, that would be great. — We'll jump in the car. We'll go up to — Perfect. It's an honor to meet you. What was your name? — David. David Sablan. — David Sablon. I'm — David M. Sublan. We'll get to know each other once we're — Perfect. — Yeah, bro. Don't smile. Well done. Sorry. — This is incredible. — Oh, beautiful. We said before this trip that we should find someone who is like 94. — Didn't we say? — Yeah, we said 94. Exactly. 94. — I hope I'm not intruding. — Not at all. We're very happy to meet — Well, thank you. I'm happy to meet the three of you. — We've been traveling across Asia for the last few months now, filming our final stories of the year, and getting to the northern Mariana Islands was much more complicated than we thought. There are no direct flights from the US, which means you have to come from Asia, which meant booking multiple flights, fairies, and hotels across the region. And here is something that I learned the hard way. Flight prices to the same destination can be wildly different depending on where the website thinks you are. And before booking our tickets for this trip, I actually used today's sponsor, Surf Shark, to check the same flight prices from different countries. And throughout the trip, we actually ended up saving a few hundred. Same exact flight, wildly different prices. The way it works is that airlines and travel websites change their prices based on your location. With Surf Shark, you can connect to a server in a different country and check what the price is there. Sometimes it's the same, sometimes it's way cheaper. When you're constantly moving like we are, those savings matter. Plus, it keeps your data encrypted on all of these random Wi-Fis that we are using.

So, that's a bonus. So, go to surfshark. com/y Theory or use code yes Theory at checkout or scan this QR code right here to get four extra months on your Surf Shark plan. Link is at the top of the description. And now, let's get back to exploring these islands. — And welcome home. — Oh, thank you. — Incredible. We've just met — this incredible man. — Welcome to our house. — Thank you. — You can come up. He's in just such good form. Look at him. 94. — And he is walking up and downstairs making it look easy. Oh wow. — This is a picture — of my dad. He was the first local to ever appear before the trusteeship council of the United Nation to report that we're so happy that we're now a territory of the United States. That's my wife that passed on. — Oh, — right back. I used to be a disc jockey. — Oh, you were a DJ? — I used to be a disc jockey in Guang Kim Radio — when I was a sales manager for General Motors in Guang. — Wow. — Yeah. — You have lived many lives. — Here's my book. — Oh, — I never went beyond high school. — Wow. But I learned how to speak English. — A degree of success through curiosity. — That is incredible. — It's a great title. — I love this too. True story of a young boy eager to learn and find his calling in life. — Anyway, — did we meet the most important person on the island? — I think we did. — I hope you enjoy reading the book. — Thank you so much. Which is your first language? — Chambor is my first. How do you say hello in Chammoro? — Half a day. — Do you remember when the Japanese were ruling here? — Oh, vividly. — Vividly. How was it? — They were okay until they brought a lot of Japanese soldiers and kicked out of our house — so they can house the military. M — how did it feel when you were inside of the cave for 3 weeks? — Oh, we were ready to die. There were a group of able body that used to go down from the cave to the sugarcane field to get our meal. One day when they were down there, they ran into a Japanese patrol. So they hid for an hour. The sun rose. They returned to the cave when the sun were already up and uh they were so afraid because they the ship ashore American ship start shooting at these people moving on top of the hill. Then they said that three Marines went up there. They saw a statue. They heard a little baby cry in the cave. So they finally discovered the entrance of the cave where there were at least 15 of us were hiding. They say means without fear come out with your hands up. So my dad jump right on and he says I surrender. He says oh you speak English. — He says little bit. He's really one of the two people that spoke English or Saipan. And he said, "By any chance you're lean? " He says, "Yes, we've been looking for you because we need a translator. " — Wow. — He says, "Well, I've been here all the time for 3 weeks. " — So anyway, they discovered us. There were 50 of us in the cave and they recovered us and took us down for 2 weeks. Dad was involved in translating on behalf of the Americans to these Japanese soldiers that were caught. These were the three Marines that saved us from the hills. — This is you. Yeah. And these are the three Marines. — Yeah. — This island is so special because of the history and the fact that it is an American island, but there are people here who speak different languages and have their own history. And now it's all intertwined with American history. But in the US, nobody knows about this place. And without this island, maybe winning World War II would have been significantly more difficult. — This is my laundry room. — Oh, — that's the statue that we had at the cave. — Oh, really? — 1944. — That's it? — Yeah. I kept it — because uh it's a blessing for me. — Wow. This is the statue that was

sitting outside of the cave that the Americans saw and then that you know le led them closer to it and then they heard the baby. We learned later that David was actually one of two people on the whole island who remembers the wartimes which made our serendipitous encounter even more incredible. — We're literally inside of a museum. A very unique one. — He's a history time capsule. — Yeah. I mean, how many people remember World War II that are alive today that have vivid memories of not just existing during it, but being at inflection points in where the history of it was happening, — the fact that humans like this exist — without any questions, he just invite he just said, "You want to I'll just take you back and tell you my whole story — like to be that generous and kind and intelligent and curious. — I'm glad to make a friend — among yourselves and thank you very much — for at least uh getting it together with me and chat up a little bit. As you can see, that house is uh is a loner. — I'm all by myself in there. — Yep. Yep. Yeah. We're very glad that we met you. If you will have time, all of you are cordally invited for lunch on Friday. — Mhm. — Oh, — at the Crown Plaza. — Oh, Thank you so much. — Thank you, David. God bless you. — Bye, David. — Bye-bye. — That was incredible. — That was amazing. [snorts] — What a privilege to uh to meet a living time capsule. At the start of this trip, before we'd begun filming, I had overheard a group of lively locals who were speaking Chammoro. We introduced ourselves and got chatting and they invited us to go meet them again for coffee. So, to kick off our second day of the trip, we went out to meet them. — And you all speak Chammoro together when — don't You don't have to teach us. You — You should know that. Half a day. — Half a day. Yeah. — That's hello, right? Yeah. And without realizing it, this coffee catchup would lead to our next adventure for the day. — Small island tourists would go there and swim, relax, — but the boat is taken care of. The rain — Oh, thank you. — Thank you very much. Compliments from us. — From our coffee boats. — Well, then we have our next adventure prepared. — Thank you, Ralph. Sounds good. So, we made our way to the pier to head out to this next island. But first, we'd be starting with an underwater exploration. The Northern Mariana Islands is an untouched paradise. They used to get 600,000 tourists a year. Now barely get any. And it's just raw tropical paradise. Everything is super affordable. Locals are super nice. There's like history things to explore and do. It's uh one of the most underrated places in the US that I've ever been to. — Oh, turtle. — wo. You know that it's like an untouched place when a turtle is in a harbor — swimming around. — Okay, time to go underwater to see what history hides below sea level. — Yeah. — So, we're going to see a Japanese airplane today here. Yes. — And it's right down here. Where is it? — Thank you. — Let's go. — After spending all this time learning about the challenging history of this place and before our final day flying to the next island where World War II's biggest secret was hidden. We were quite happy to take a short break, as organized by our friendly locals, and enjoy some sunshine. —

— Okay. So, um, Thomas and Cory is walking over there and you said hi to these lovely people. And you are who? You are. — I'm David Sablan's granddaughter. — That is so wild. Yeah. We met him randomly yesterday and had the time of our lives with him. — Really? — Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, he was showing us pictures and photo albums and that he was a former DJ. And — I didn't know he was a DJ. — Hi. I'm Thomas. — I'm Danielle. — What was your name? My name is Mary Sablad. — Oh, no way. — My grandpa is David. — Are you serious? — Yeah. — We met him yesterday. — Wow. I can't. What a coincidence. — It's a small island, but there's like 50,000 people. It's still like not that small. — Yeah. Yeah. — Yeah. You said David Sablan. I immediately turned around. I was like, — "What's What's the name of your dad? " — Uh Steve. — Okay. Steve. Yeah. Yeah. — Called yesterday when we were at the house. — Oh. And he was like, "I have guests here from Sweden. " — By the way, I have visitors here from Sweden. — That's your grandpa. — It was so funny, — bro. What are the odds? This is incredible. We were meant to uh to capture the legacy of the Sablon family. As the sun set on another day on this paradise island, we couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive because the next day we would be going to the northern part of Tinion, a place that played a pivotal role in the most cataclysmic event in the history of warfare. — Have you seen the size of the plane we're taking? — It's just us three. Us three in the pilot. We are the only ones on this plane going to the Tinyan Islands, which is historically one of the most pivotal places on planet Earth. — Wow. — Well done, Captain. — Well, let the Tinian Island exploration begin. Thank you so much. How are — you? Can we take a picture? — Oh, of course. — I watch yesterday. That's so awesome. Wow. — It's so awesome that you guys came in here. Like you found this small island. — Yeah, that's so cool. — It's so surreal. I'm shaking. Oh my god, — So nice to meet you. — We're from the reservation office of the star. So — Oh, no way. So you like saw our name? — Yeah. I was like, "Oh my god, is this real? Like, are they coming here? — We're the only ones here. " — The only ones here are literally like one from the Yes community. — Yeah. — And the people are working here. — Guess we just go through here. — I've never been at such an empty airport in my entire life. Like everyone that worked at the airport just left after we left because there's nothing else to do for a while. We drove across the island and eventually off the main roads onto dirt tracks as we approached this secretive area. Uh uhoh. — This is now a military area and the road is closed. — This guy's going. He doesn't care. — We just follow him. — Yeah, we follow him. Yeah. — We are out in the thick wilderness right now. — Wa. Ladies and gentlemen, we are on the abandoned airplane strip. This was the largest airplane strip during World War II. — With Caipan secured, the US quickly took over the neighboring islands of Tinian and Guam and immediately started building air strips that could accommodate these. The B-29 Superfortress, the biggest, fastest bombing plane in the world. — B29 Superfortress bomber planes. Tiny became the largest air base of World War II, housing 40,000 personnel. The US had been launching bombing raids on Japanese territories from Changdu in China. But being 2,000 mi away, the B29 could only reach a tiny sliver of the Japanese home islands. The Marianas were 500 m closer, putting the bottom half of the islands within reach. Thousands of bombers conducted hundreds of air raids across 66 Japanese urban centers, culminating in the two most significant bombings in history. From this air base, two bombs developed under absolute

secrecy by Oenheimer were loaded into their planes. They took off towards Hiroshima and Nagazaki to carry out the only two nuclear attacks in the history of mankind. Atomic bomb pits one and two. Is that a replica of it? I think that's a rep two replicas of the bombs. — The deadliest weapon ever built laid right here. I've never been this close to anything like this. Right here, there was a nuclear bomb that was dropped and killed hundreds of thousands of people. It's uh hard to understand that what started on this now abandoned airplane strip has defined world politics ever since that day. Everything that we do is impacted by the existence of these things right here. And now we're the only people here standing in this pivotal place in history. This little beautiful paradise island ended up being marked in history as where the threat of our destruction was seated. — Oh. Oh, wow. [snorts] So, we're inside a World War II air raid shelter in here. — Data. This is a Japanese fuel and bomb storage. I'm not going in there. — Yeah. — Let's get the hell out of here. — It's a very eerie feeling to be here. If these things continue to happen, then we're just going to see a world that is probably not so pleasant to be in or even possible to be in. So, — it felt absurd to be at such a pivotal place in world history and have no one knowledgeable to speak about it with. But thankfully, a yes subscriber we met at the airport gave us the phone number of a local historian who we hoped could answer all of our questions. — What may I do for you this morning? — Uh we're actually in Tinion and we make travel YouTube videos and uh we were told that you were the local legend to speak to here uh about the history and about obviously all the World War II uh history that happened here. — This afternoon, how long are you going to be on Kenya? Uh, we're taking the last plane at 5:00 p. m. Uhoh. Mr. Are you with the IRS? — Is that thing on? Am I being recorded? What can I do for you, — man? It's good to see you. What made you so interested in the history of the islands here? — Um, I came to Guam in January 1977 as a contract school teacher. Had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. And so, I came out here to go scuba diving and teaching. Shortly after that, I was invited to one of my students um birthday parties. So, I went back there and sat down and I don't know anybody. I don't know anything about Chammorals. I don't know what a chum I know nothing. Finally, one of them very politely looked over at me and said, "Um, Mr. Frell, do you have any particular questions or anything? " And I said, "Well, well, yes. As a matter of fact, I've been trying to read World War II novels that include stories about uh the island of Guam. " And I I some of them tell stories about some atrocities — that supposedly occurred out here right by the Japanese. — Are those stories true? Lette the whole backyard went silent and they said, "You want to know about the atrocities? " And I said, "So they're real? " And he said, "I will tell you the story. " So when I heard those stories, I said, "Why hasn't America read about

this? This is supposed to be a part of America. That's an atrocity against America, right? " And they said like that. So I began doing more research and that led to my first book because those atrocities occurred right before the American invasion. And then I remember walking across the street uh one day shortly after that this guy on the other side stops me and he says, "Are you Don Frell? You're the guy that wrote that book. " I said, "Yeah. " And he says, "Thank you. " I said, "Why? " And he says, "That's the first time anybody's ever tried to do that. " So with that, I said, "I guess I got it. " Tenian's critical role in uh World War II was the use of the atomic bombs, the establishment of the nuclear facilities on the island of Tenyan. It was all under done under the deepest of security and that's why most people don't know what really happened out here during World War II. And the dropping of the atomic bombs prevented the invasion of Japan. And as a result, we have a very positive relationship with Japan today. They are our closest ally in the Pacific and it's something that we must preserve and maintain. — Thank you so much. — Thank you. — We can feel the love and passion in your words and that — it would grow on you too. And I can tell from what you guys are doing, you have your passions as well, — right? And they will amplify more the older you get and the longer you play in the game. M yeah. — Our time in the northern Maranas was not over yet. Caipan and Tinian were like nothing we'd experienced before. The scars and stories of war on this island are still hard for us to fully process. And when hearing these stories, we were reminded that these global conflicts always cause pain that ripples far beyond what we tend to perceive. No matter how much we think we know, there are always more untold stories of the atrocities of war. But these islands also stole our hearts. From their untouched beauty to the kind-hearted locals, somehow these islands have gone under the radar of everybody. Yet deeply deserves a visit for explorers and lovers of nature. But just as we thought we were leaving this region for good. We had no idea what was on the cusp of happening because the same subscriber Ed who had told us about Don the Historian also told us this. the remaining islands up north like there's only like maybe like one or two people like in a volcanic island paradise. — One or two people live there. — It's on an active volcano. It's active volcano, bro. — It's crazy. — How did you get to those islands? — By boat. It's like a 18 hour boat ride. — 18-hour boat ride. — Feeling like we'd only just scratched the surface of Saipan, we knew we couldn't possibly pass up the chance to visit one of the world's most isolated islands. with only one man living full-time by himself on an active volcano. And if that already sounds dangerous enough, it's nothing compared to what actually happened next. — We ran out of fuel.