Alva Review-Courier -

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) — Sumiko Goeku was barely 7 when her aunt carried her on her back into the ocean, summoned strength to tow her to deep water, then pushed her away and left her to drown.

One might easily conclude that the child's aunt must have had pure evil in her heart, or that perhaps she was psychotic, but the truth was that she no doubt was as terrified as her niece. Struggling back to shore, she believed that her own fate was as surely sealed, for there, waiting for her, was her husband holding a gun with two bullets.

Such was the hopelessness on the island of Saipan in June 1944.

When...