CNN
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A US Marine Corps plane has landed on a reconstructed runway of a World War II Japanese airfield on the Pacific island of Peleliu, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war and a potential base for the US as part of its strategy to counter China.
The KC-130 Hercules transport aircraft landed on the 6,000-foot runway on June 22. A Marine Corps press release said it was a “significant and triumphant return to this iconic World War II site.”
For months, naval engineers had worked to rebuild the runway, removing brush and trees and ensuring that no unexploded ordnance from World War II battles remained on the island, which is part of the island nation of Palau.
According to the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, more than 1,500 U.S. soldiers and nearly 11,000 Japanese died on Peleliu between August and November 1944. The command noted that some Japanese soldiers hid in the island’s jungle and were not found until two years after the end of World War II.
A US unit, the 1st Marine Regiment, suffered 70% of its losses in six days of fighting on the island.
The Marines named the rebuilt runway “Sledge” in honor of a veteran of the Battle of Peleliu, Pfc. Eugene Sledge, a mortarman on the island who wrote about it in his memoir, “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa,” and whose memories were portrayed in the HBO miniseries “The Pacific.”
Corbis/Getty Images
Troops of the First Marine Division make their way to the beaches of Peleliu Island in 1944.
Sledge described Peleliu as “an alien, otherworldly, surrealist nightmare like the surface of another planet.”
Now the runway “bridges the past and the future, honoring the sacrifices of World War II while strengthening regional security and cooperation,” the Marine Corps press release said.
The focus of this regional security in recent years has largely been on China, which the Pentagon describes as a “growing threat.”
One way to contain this threat has been to build facilities where the US could station resources such as aircraft in the event of hostilities. This includes the so-called second chain of islands. These locations are so far from mainland China that Beijing would have difficulty attacking targets there.
The First Island Chain, such as places like Okinawa in Japan or U.S. bases in the Philippines, “is neither a survivable nor a viable base of operations given China’s military capabilities with long-range bombers, cruise missiles, and tactical ballistic missiles,” wrote U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Grant Georgulis in a 2022 commentary published on the U.S. Department of Defense website.
“Therefore, the United States should give priority to the Midway Islands, the Marianas, Palau and the Marshall Islands to complement the already fortified Guam,” Georgulis wrote.
China has sharply criticized Washington’s efforts to forge alliances in the Pacific, viewing them as an attempt to halt Beijing’s rise to military and economic superpower status.
Beijing has long felt constrained by the US presence on the First and Second Island Chains and, under Xi Jinping’s leadership, has become much more confident in the regional waters and on a confrontational course with neighbours such as Japan and the Philippines.
In addition, attempts were made to strengthen diplomatic and security relations throughout the Pacific region.
“To protect its hegemony, the United States is forming blocs around the world to target certain countries, provoke confrontations and destabilize the world,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency wrote in a recent editorial.
“It claims to protect its allies under mutual defense treaties, but in reality the treaties serve as a tool to subordinate them to the superpower and bring them to the forefront of conflicts.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force requested $400 million in its 2025 budget to extend the runway at the international airport on the island of Yap – also a former Japanese military airport – so that it can be used by U.S. military aircraft. The island is part of the Federated States of Micronesia and is located halfway between Guam and Palau.
The United States is already conducting work at other sites in the second island chain, including the revival of North Field on the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands, from where the U.S. bombers that dropped the atomic bombs took off in August 1945.
“The United States must focus like a laser on the need for air superiority in the Pacific. The United States must recapitalize the islands captured in World War II to form a second island chain of strategic expeditionary points,” Georgulis wrote.
For Washington, building closer ties with the Pacific island nations is also a way to prevent China from gaining a foothold in the region. The Biden administration has signed a bilateral defense agreement with Papua New Guinea and reopened an embassy in the Solomon Islands since early 2023.
Palau is a remote archipelago of coral and volcanic islands in the western Pacific and home to about 20,000 people.
Since 1994, Palau has been subject to an Association Agreement with the United States, which makes Washington responsible for the country’s defense needs and allows Palauans to serve in the U.S. military.
Palau signed a bilateral law enforcement agreement with Washington last year that allows the U.S. Coast Guard to enforce its laws in the exclusive economic zone without the presence of a Palauan officer.
US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro visited Palau’s capital Koror in March as part of a Pacific tour that included stops at two key US allies, Japan and South Korea. He said Washington’s partnership with the island nation “directly supports a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
“I can assure you that the United States remains committed to the national security of Palau,” Del Toro said during a trip that included a visit to construction on the airstrip on Peleliu Island.
Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. criticized China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the region, including against Taiwan. Palau is one of the few remaining countries that diplomatically recognizes Taiwan and Beijing does not.
In addition to the runway, U.S. Marines are helping to renovate the Peleliu Civic Center Museum to house artifacts from the World War II battle.
At an event marking the landing of naval aircraft on Peleliu last month, island governor Emais Roberts thanked the U.S. Department of Defense for its efforts there.
“Our small island community has benefited tremendously from the presence of the U.S. Navy. We value the great partnership and feel safe and protected with the support of the greatest country in the world.”
