Kaigun Sho - A Legacy Of The Second World War...

As we drove along Babeldaob's south eastern part, towards the Ked and Kesebelau areas, we came across the Kaigun Sho, a legacy of the Second World War.

Palau was a major battleground during the Second World War. Philippines was already under Japanese control and the legendary General Douglas MacArthur called for the recapture of the Philippines and then Okinawa, followed by an attack on mainland Japan. That strategy involved a complete dominance of the Pacific theatre and as a consequence United States battled the Japanese here in Palau to achieve that strategic goal.

The biggest battle was fought on Peleliu island. The United States believed that Peleliu would be secured within four days. However, they had grossly underestimated Japan's well-crafted fortifications and they had put up a stiff resistance The battle at Peleliu lasted more than two months, making it a controversial battle - some military strategists questioned Peleliu's strategic value, there was an unusually high casualty rate, far exceeding that of all other amphibious operations during the war in this region. It took the Americans over 1500 rounds of ammunition to kill each Japanese defender, and that during the course of the battle, the Americans used nearly 14.5 million rounds of ammunition, nearly 120,000 grenades and nearly 150,000 mortar rounds and this led the battle to be called as "the bitterest battle of the war for the Marines".

Today, Peleliu is a well preserved site for tourists, but since we would not be visiting the island, we decided on visiting Kaigun Sho.

Given the strategic importance of Koror to the Japanese economic interests in Palau, they had built a string of military facilities around the city. One of them was the Kaigun Sho - the communication facilities of the Japanese military. 

The Kaigun Sho was bombed by the United States during the war...

The Japanese dug a lot of trenches around this road in Airai, and up the hills to defend Kaigun Sho. To "smoke out" the Japanese, the United States extensively bombed the village areas and hills that surrounded the Kaigun Sho.

The ruins of Kaigun Sho are reminiscent of the horrors of that Palau was witness to... 

A rusting Japanese tank...

The roof was blown away during the bombing...

As peace returned, Palau became a tourist destination for the Japanese, who still come here to pay homage to their countrymen who perished here, incognito, on these islands...

It was indeed interesting to see the thick foliage around the Kaigun So. Indeed nature is so magical, it reclaims what humans abandon...