Now the Republic of Palau, the former Palau Islands rank amongst the finest holiday destinations in the Pacific, especially if your interests are white sandy beaches and underwater exploration. There is now even a bridge connecting the former Japanese garrisoned islands of Koror and Babelthuap, funded by the Japanese Government and built by the Kajima Corporation. Built to foster good relations between Palau and Japan, the bridge was opened with great ceremony on 11 January 2002.
US Marine Corps monument to the 1st Marine Division (Reinforced) on Peleliu. The 1st Mar. Div. was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation “for extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces at Peleliu and Ngesebus from September 15 to 29 1944”. (Eric Mailander)
Today Peleliu lies largely forgotten, the scars of war overgrown by a dense carpet of tropical vegetation, but a closer inspection reveals an abundance of relics testifying to the battle and the occupation by the garrison troops afterwards.
Until the 1980s, visitors to the Palaus consisted mainly of Japanese veterans and relatives on nostalgia trips and very few Americans returned. However, the Palau Islands today boast some of the finest underwater diving locations anywhere in the world and, as such, many luxury hotels and complexes have appeared, mainly on Koror, as more and more people travel to the Palaus to experience the wonders of nature.
Also, from Koror, World War II historical battlefield tours are available to Peleliu and Angaur. Modern civilization is slowly coming to Peleliu, with electricity, television and many other trappings of today’s rapidly developing world. Communication with the other islands in the Palaus is maintained both by boat and light aircraft, and young villagers conduct tours taking in many of the sites of the battle. In September 1999, a group of Marine Corps veterans of the battle for Peleliu, their sons and a few history buffs, returned to the island for the 55th anniversary of the battle. The beaches and the old Japanese airstrip are readily accessible and many relics, from bullets to LVTs, litter the battlefield. However, to view the sites up in the Umurbrogol Pocket, the visitor needs a stout pair of climbing boots and an even stouter heart, as the jungle has reclaimed many of the places that were so stark and barren all those years ago. Many of the caves, including Nakagawa’s last command post, remain, and the efforts required to seek them out can be rewarding.
Tours of the villages also show many reminders of the battle, with small collections of artifacts and vehicles being displayed, although caution must be taken in a lot of the areas, due to the proliferation of ammunition and ordnance, which almost 60 years after the battle may be in a dangerous condition.
Atop Five Brothers stands a memorial to the 1st Marine Division and, inland of Beach Orange, stands the 81st Infantry Division monument, which was originally part of the Peleliu Military Cemetery, though the cemetery has long gone and is now overgrown by dense vegetation. Remains interred in the American Military Cemetery were transferred to Manila, Hawaii, or US locations, according to the wishes of the next of kin. A Japanese memorial stands in the civilian cemetery on Peleliu.
The shell of this LVT(A)4 stands in silent testimony to the bloody battle that raged here in the fall of 1944. Although the jungle is rapidly doing its best to obliterate the scars, the visitor to the island can still stumble across numerous reminders of the struggle scattered here and there across the island. (Eric Mailander)
A field survey of Peleliu carried out by the Micronesian Archaeological Society team in 1981, reported that the Japanese blockhouse on Orange 3 that had held up the 3/7 remained “largely intact” and many other installations were located and charted. The full report, Peleliu Revisited, by D. Colt Denfeld, Micronesian Archaeological Survey Report #24, gives a fairly detailed account of the battle, followed by an in-depth survey report of the entirety of both Peleliu and Angaur, although the reader must note that the survey was done in 1988 and not all the relics survive today, but many do survive and more are unearthed each year.
The Palau islands are easily accessed, with regular flights from Guam to Koror. Most visitors stay on Koror or Arakabesang Islands, the majority of hotels being on Koror. Peleliu can be accessed from Koror by boat or plane. Occasionally, small groups of veterans and historians of the battle visit to reflect and remember, but these are growing fewer and fewer as the years go by, and soon nature will have covered any last remaining scars of a battle fought so bitterly many years ago.