THE unmistakable sounds of canons exploding and machine guns firing, soldiers shouting and running is what one will hear from the lobby is more than enough to lure one to come in.
The virtual World War 2 museum located inside American Memorial Park Complete with flashing lights, booming sounds and narration of what transpired during the bloody battle on Saipan during the World War 2
The museum will give you a glimpse of what life in the islands was during the war.
Pick up a telephone receiver and press a button to hear accounts of the war from different individuals.
Leaf through the printed laminated pages of first person accounts of residents recalling the horrors they experienced as Saipan became one place where one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific took place.
The museum is littered with cannon shells and casings, soldier’s helmets, armor-piercing artillery shells, grenades, boxes and crates used to house ammunitions, remains of dinner plates and water canteens some of them with shrapnel holes, sniper hats, rifle shells, caliber rifle cartridges, and everything else.
Name it and you have it there— all mute witnesses of the horrors of war and in memory of those who sacrificed their lives to save the nation.
The virtual World War 2 museum at American Memorial Park gets a fair share of visitors both locals and tourists everyday.
Seeing a tourist, especially those from Japan whose parents or grandparents were involved during the World War 2 here get sentimental and shed tears as they tour around the museum and look at the relics is a common sight.
The Visitors Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. everyday. Admission is free for everybody. For more information, please call (670) 234-7207, fax 234-6698, or email amme_administration@nps.gov.