The latter half of 1944 saw the Japanese army being repelled by American forces in the Pacific. General Macarthur was back in the Philippines and the push was on through Iwo Jima in the east and Okinawa in the west. Palau sits between these lines of attack and the 10,000 Japanese soldiers and the valuable airstrip here was cut off from Japan. Opinion was divided wuth US Admiral Nimmitz in favour of attacking the Japanese in Palau and Admiral Halsey against. Nimmitz prevailed and the marines were sent in in here September 1944 for an anticipated 3 day skirmish to drive the Japanese out of Palau.
As I wander through the museum, past the memorial cairns and the rusted out WW11 military hardware in the jungle, I try to imagine the living hell this must have been then. The lush vegetation on fire an angry witness to the carnage below. I have the luxury of a pleasant afternoon of cycling around the island to see all of this and reenact the battles in my mind’s eye. Especially poignant as this all happened just over half a century ago and is relatively fresh in our minds as the planet’s last great war
The Japanese soldiers changed tactic for this battle. Elsewhere in the Pacific they met the US forces head on and fought mano y mano. In Peleliu the fact that the island is made of limestone and honeycombed with caves allowed the Japanese to bunker down, await the enemy from a secure position and to shoot at the attacking US forces.
US tanks
Ultimately 3 days of battle became 16 and the casualty rate of this under reported and relatively unknown US victory was a horrendous 2000 dead for the US and all 10000 Japanese perished. Ultimately the Japanese commander here refused to surrender and committed harakiri as any honourable Japanese warrior would.
As a post script to this battle, amazingly and against the odds a few Japanese soldiers survived in the tunnels. The last of them surrendered in 1947!
japanese war tunnel 
War museum
Japanese HQ
Japanese HQ
Japanese Zero jet fighter
Japanese Howitzer gun
Japanese Peace Park
Japanese tank