Saipan is wonderful and sad at the same time.  You see the cliffs from which Japanese mothers and children leapt because they so feared the advancing American soldiers at the end of World War II.  You see the lifeless coral reefs, torpedoed into oblivion, but then you see a bit of new color- life returning.  The people are a product of that combination of sad experience and determination to better themselves.  Listen to them when you visit.