Veteran recalls World War II 'bonsai' attack on Saipan

By JOE SOVA / Hungry Horse News

Rudy Matule has vivid memories of four years of his life — when he served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.

Rudy enlisted in the Marine Corps as a teenager. He spent his early time in San Diego as part of the 2nd Division, then was in the 3rd Division on the East coast, going back to the West coast and Camp Pendleton, an operation just being built. While at Camp Pendleton, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant.

Matule, who is now 92 and lives at the Montana Veterans' Home in Columbia Falls, was a part of four major campaigns during the war. On the top of the list of recollections of combat — when his USMC 4th Division faced a "bonsai attack" by droves of Japanese soldiers. It was the night before Americans were planning to take over an airport on Saipan, the largest of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean.

"The Japanese came charging at us," Rudy recalls. "It was a bad, bad night."

He survived, but many in his division did not.

"We took Saipan," Rudy said, but not before a Japanese pilot flew so low it nearly took out American troops before the plane was shot down.

Saipan was defended by about 32,000 Japanese troops, but 77,000 Marines swept onto the island in mid-June of 1944 and it was secure by July 9. Later, the 4th Division was involved in the taking of Tinian.

The U.S. strategic objective was to gain air bases within bombing range of the new B-29s on the Mariana Islands, especially Saipan, Tinian and Guam.

Another recollection of Rudy's was the U.S.' invasion of Iwo Jima, one of the most revered conquests of the war.

In February of 1945, the 4th Division and other U.S. troops stormed Iwo Jima. There were more than 20,000 Japanese on the island. It was an unusual and difficult challenge, since it was heavily defended with many underground entrenchment. But it was eventually taken by Marines after they captured Mount Suribachi, a keystone of the defense — yard by yard.

Rudy was there when U.S. soldiers raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi. A proud and memorable moment, indeed.

Nearly half of Rudy's division saw casualties, either soldiers killed or wounded, and the division left the island for Maui. There were 25,000 Allied Force casualties on Iwo Jima, with nearly 7,000 dead. Defending the homeland until death, only about 1,000 of the 20,000-plus Japanese on the island were taken prisoner.

"Then [President Harry] Truman dropped the bomb," Rudy said, and the war was on its way to being over.

It was a two-theater war, since Germany had declared war on the U.S. four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

On Aug. 6, 1945, a nuclear weapon carried by a B-29 destroyed Hiroshima. Three days later, the second atomic bomb obliterated the port city of Nagasaki.

Rudy was a pump man in a mine in Butte, where he was born and raised, before the war. After his honorable discharge, Rudy married his sweetheart, Helen, in 1947. They owned and operated a grocery business in Butte for many years, but Helen was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Rudy cared for Helen for 15 years before she died, ending 48 years with the love of his life.

Rudy moved from Butte to the Montana Veterans' Home in 2002.

"To me this is heaven," he said last week.

Rudy is one of millions of Americans proud to serve his country in the fight for freedom.