Lance Corporal Hannah Hollerud/United States Marine Corps
U.S. Marines, Sailors and local residents watch as a Marine Corps KC-130J Super Hercules aircraft from Marine Aircraft Wing 1 lands at a newly designated airstrip on Peleliu Island, June 22, 2024.
CNN
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A U.S. Marine Corps plane lands on a reconstructed runway at a Japanese World War II-era airfield on the Pacific island of Peleliu, site of one of the Marine Corps’ bloodiest battles during World War II and now a proposed site for a U.S. military base as part of a strategy to counter China.
On June 22, a KC-130 Hercules transport plane landed on the 6,000-foot runway in what a Marine Corps press release called “a significant return to this iconic World War II site.”
Navy engineers have been working for months to rebuild the runway, clear brush and remove unexploded ordnance left over from a World War II battle on the island, which is part of the Republic of Palau.
More than 1,500 U.S. soldiers and about 11,000 Japanese soldiers died on Peleliu between August and November 1944, according to the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command. The command noted that some Japanese soldiers hid in the island’s jungles and were not discovered until two years after World War II ended.
The U.S. unit, the 1st Marine Regiment, suffered 70% casualties during six days of fighting on the island.
The Marines named the reconstructed runway “Sledge” Runway in honor of Peleliu Battle veteran and mortarman on the island, Pleliu Corporal Eugene Sledge, who wrote about the battle in his memoir, With the Oldest Men: On Peleliu and Okinawa, and whose memories were also depicted in the HBO miniseries The Pacific.
Corbis/Getty Images
Elements of the 1st Marine Division approach the shores of Peleliu Island, 1944.
Sledge described Peleliu as “an alien, otherworldly, surreal nightmare, like the surface of another planet.”
Today, the runway “serves as a bridge between the past and the future, honoring the sacrifices of World War II while enhancing regional security and cooperation,” according to a Marine Corps statement.
In recent years, security in the region has been focused primarily on China, which the Department of Defense has labeled a “pacing threat.”
As part of its efforts to mitigate the threat, the United States has been building facilities where it can disperse aircraft and other assets in the event of hostilities, including along the so-called second island chain that is far enough from mainland China to make it difficult for Beijing to attack.
The first island chain, which includes Okinawa in Japan and U.S. military bases in the Philippines, “is not a survivable or viable operating area due to the military capabilities of China’s long-range bombers, cruise missiles, and theater ballistic missiles,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Grant Georgoulis wrote in a 2022 op-ed published on the Pentagon’s website.
“The United States should therefore prioritize Midway Island, the Mariana Islands, Palau, and the Marshall Islands to complement an already fortified Guam,” Georgoulis wrote.
China has strongly criticized U.S. alliance-building efforts in the Pacific, viewing them as an attempt to check Beijing’s rise as a military and economic superpower.
Beijing has long felt cornered by the U.S. presence in the First and Second Island Chains and, under President Xi Jinping, has become increasingly assertive in regional waters, putting it at odds with neighbors such as Japan and the Philippines.
We are also seeking to strengthen diplomatic and security relations across the Pacific region.
“To defend its hegemony, the United States has formed blocs globally, targeted certain countries, fomented conflict and destabilized the world,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a recent editorial.
“Japan claims to protect its allies through mutual defense treaties, but in reality the treaties serve as a tool to subordinate allies to superpowers and push them to the front lines of conflict.”
Meanwhile, on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia, located halfway between Guam and Palau, the U.S. Air Force has requested $400 million in the 2025 budget to extend the runway at the island’s international airport (a former Japanese military airfield) so that U.S. military aircraft can use it.
The U.S. is already working on other parts of the second island chain, including restoring North Field on Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands, the site from which the U.S. bombers that dropped the atomic bombs in August 1945 departed.
“The United States must be laser-focused on the need for air superiority in the Pacific. The United States must recapitalize the islands it captured during World War II to form a second island chain of strategic expeditionary bases,” Georgoulis wrote.
For Washington, building strong ties with Pacific island nations is also seen as a way to prevent China from gaining a foothold in the region. The Biden administration has signed a bilateral defense pact with Papua New Guinea and is reopening an embassy in the Solomon Islands from early 2023.
Palau is a remote archipelago of coral reefs and volcanic islands in the western Pacific Ocean and is home to about 20,000 people.
Since 1994, Palau has been under a Compact of Free Association with the United States, which makes the United States responsible for Palau’s defense needs and allows Palauans to serve in the U.S. military.
Palau signed a bilateral law enforcement agreement with the United States last year, allowing the U.S. Coast Guard to enforce laws in Palau’s exclusive economic zone without Palauan officials being present.
U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro visited Palau’s capital, Koror, in March as part of a Pacific tour that also included key U.S. allies Japan and South Korea and said Washington’s partnership with Palau “directly supports a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
“I can assure you that the United States remains committed to Palau’s national security,” del Toro said during a visit that also included inspecting runway construction on Peleliu island.
Palau President Srangell Whipps Jr. has criticized China’s increasingly assertive stance in the region, including toward Taiwan, one of the few countries that diplomatically recognizes Taiwan rather than Beijing.
In addition to the runway, the Marines are helping renovate the Peleliu Civic Center Museum, which houses artifacts from the World War II battle.
At an event marking the landing of a Marine Corps aircraft on Peleliu last month, the island’s governor, Emma Roberts, thanked the Department of Defense for its efforts.
“Our small island community benefits greatly from the presence of the U.S. Marine Corps. We value our great partnership and feel safe and protected by the support of the greatest nation in the world.”