{"id":1179,"date":"2024-06-29T09:31:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T09:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/palau\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2024-06-30T12:11:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T12:11:12","slug":"day-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/palau\/2024\/06\/29\/day-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 9: Pathway to the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today marked the halfway point of the trip, and we had a day off to do with as we pleased. The majority of us decided to charter a boat to Peleliu, one of the southern islands of the Palauan archipelago and the site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. In an island-hopping campaign across the Pacific, American forces set their sites on the Japanese-controlled Peleliu and its valuable airfield. What was expected to be a short, 2 to 3 day campaign turned into a 2.5-month siege. It has earned the nickname \u201cMuseum Island\u201d because of the sheer number of well-preserved artifacts and buildings, with more being unearthed even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A destroyed Japanese Type 95 Ha Go<\/em> light tank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our tour guide, Des, led us around the island, recounting stories from the war and the horrors that faced the people there. More than 11,000 Japanese soldiers were entrenched in positions they\u2019d spent months fortifying, and of these forces, only 19 survived. Over 2000 Americans died there as well, marking it one of the costliest battles in the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the numerous relics left over from the battle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With that somber reminder fresh in our minds, we returned to the boat and headed to our last artifact of the day, a sunken Japanese fuel freighter. Here, we enjoyed the cool water after a hot day in the sun, floating over the shallow wreck and watching the life that calls this wreck home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our boat next to the sunken fuel freighter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The islands where the freighter sank, visible at the bottom left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n