Lesser Known Heroes Of World War II

In June 1944, Guy Gabaldon was a Marine private who found himself in the middle of the battle for Saipan. According to the New York Times, during the conflict thousands of Japanese soldiers staged suicide charges against American lines and civilians chose suicide over surrender to the U.S. But Private Gabaldon set out on missions that resulted in him bringing back both Japanese soldiers and civilians alive. He later wrote, "I must have seen too many John Wayne movies, because what I was doing was suicidal."

Gabaldon grew up in Los Angeles, and thanks to a friendship with a Japanese-American family, he'd picked up some Japanese language skills. He put them to use in the battle for Saipan, a part of the Mariana Islands. Often under the cover of darkness, he headed off alone into enemy territory, where he convinced the Japanese to surrender.

Promising them that they would be well-treated as POWs, the 18-year-old Gabaldon (right, pictured with some of the people who surrendered) convinced more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians to follow him back to camp and surrender, including 800 on one July 1944 day. This earned him the nickname the Pied Piper of Saipan.

Gabaldon was wounded and evacuated in 1945, and, according to NBC, there was a push to see him awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor after his death in 2006. A documentary about him, "East L.A. Marine," asks whether he had been denied one because of his Hispanic heritage and his opposition to America's Japanese internment camps.

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