Condition Assessment and Preservation Recommendations: World War II Era Structures, Peleliu State, Republic of Palau

Graves, Stanley; Sparks, S.

Overview: "Peleliu Battlefield includes all of Peleliu Island, which is in the south-most of the major Palau Islands. Peleliu is 30 miles south of Koror, the capital of the Republic of Palau, and 500 miles east of the Philippine Islands. It is six miles in length and two miles in width. Today, its people live primarily in two villages that were reconstructed after World War II (WWII): The capital city Klouklubed and Imelchol; both near the north end of the island. The battle for Peleliu Island was the longest and one of the most hard-fought battles in the entire Central Pacific amphibious operations in WWII. In contrast to earlier combat where the Japanese had vainly attempted to annihilate the enemy on the beaches, Peleliu's defenses were organized with the main line of resistance established inland, artillery, and mortar fire registered on the beaches, and defenses skillfully arranged in depth in order to sustain resistance to an attack while destroying enemy. Although the Japanese troops lost the battle, their new tactics enabled them to inflict heavy losses on American Marines and Army forces and to hold out for 74 days. Peleliu marked the conclusion of the Central Pacific drive toward the Philippines. Today Peleliu is one of the most intact battlefields in the world, retaining most of the original Japanese buildings and defensive structures. Essentially no repairs or significant modifications have been made. In particular, the highly visible and dramatic battle damage to the reinforced concrete buildings is largely unchanged since the war. The seven building sites included in this study are: 1) Japanese Air Headquarters Building; 2) Japanese Radio Direction Finder; 3) Japanese Power Plant; 4) Japanese Blockhouse; 5) Japanese Control Tower/Airfield Operations Center; 6) Japanese Inter-Island Radio Station (Naval Radio Site); and 7) American Orange Beach Chapel. The first six sites in the study are all 1930s era-type buildings constructed of cast-in-lace concrete by the Japanese . The seventh site is the Orange Beach Cemetery Chapel which is the most recently constructed (1945) and least intact of all the buildings we have visited. Indeed, it represents a radically different purpose, construction type, durability and builder than all of the other heavily-reinforced concrete military structures built by the Japanese that are a part of this study...." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Palau Historic Preservation Office, Bureau of Arts and Culture, Ministry of Community & Cultural Affairs, administered by the Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Condition Assessment and Preservation Recommendations: World War II Era Structures, Peleliu State, Republic of Palau

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