Category Archives: Marshall Islands

Maloelap’s WWII Remnants Part II

Leave a reply

In Part I of our Maloelap’s WWII Remnants we explore Japanese bunkers, anti-aircraft guns, coastal defense guns, the command center, two ammunition depots and more.  In this blog post we will share with you several airplanes including a zero and parts of a Betty Bomber.

Arry, our tour guide, first takes us to a field where the land owners literally tossed airplane remnants in a pile.  It is such a shame as it would have been nice to see them where they landed.  But then who would want that reminder of past relatives horrific demise?  You can see several props sticking out of the vegetation and the body of a Zero in the top left photo. 

Airplane Grave Yard

It was a little tricky walking in the airplane graveyard as there are iron and metal parts strewn all over, hidden under the tall grass and coconut shells.  We find the tail of a Betty Bomber (we think) in the top right photo, several props (top left with white arrows), and a few cockpits from different zero airplanes.

WWII Buildings

We are not 100% certain what this facility was used for but it is a huge long square building with immensely thick walls.  The door and wall had to be close to 1 meter thick!

Several buildings are now buried and or they were built below ground.  You never know if you are walking on solid ground or the roof of a dilapidated building (unnerving, yes). The laundry facilities (where they watched items for over 3,000 people) is partially underground.  Just outside are 3 large boilers.

Torishima Maru

The Torishima Maru (also spelled Terushima Maru) was built in the late 1920s and started its life as a transport freighter.  This ship was approximately 90 meters long, 10 meters wide and sits upright in about 12 meters of water off the shores of Taroa in Maloelap.  She was outfitted with anti-aircraft guns when she was converted for military action during WWII. 

Torishima Maru was the last supply ship to arrive in the Marshall Islands.  She was hit and was able to barely limp to Maloelap where she was bombed again and sank in the shallow waters in 1943.  The troops spent 1 ½ years without reinforcements or supplies, leading to disease & starvation.

One of her two masts stands tall to this day indicating where the shipwreck is in the lagoon.

The entire ship sits upright in the water with the stern being relatively intact.  However, the bow is a mangled mess of metal. On deck we find a few cool boat parts including a windlass, rope guide, and cleats. 

Matt dives down and finds the massive prop and rudder.  We also find a staircase the used to lead up to the pilot house.  The aft mast is still standing up, albeit crooked.  The aft mast fell a few decades ago and lies on the bottom of the sea bed.

Pretty amazing how the sea just takes over and provides homes for millions of fish and new sea life.

Random WWII Relics

Surely someone knows what these buildings are?  Maybe a WWII pillbox?  We found several along the coast.  They are round with 1 meter thick windows and flat rooves.  We went inside and there used to be a gun that popped up out of the roof. It had a 360 radius.  Below the gun was a locked, round room for the ammunition (bottom left two photos).  The pulleys that raised and lowered the steel plate that covered the windows were intact (bottom right photo).

On the southern end of Taroa were lots of these pillboxes.  A pillbox is a type of blockhouse or concrete guard post with small windows which defenders can fire weapons. Typically they are camouflaged and raised for better aim.  We assume these were much higher onshore but due to erosion they are now on the reef.

We found a random coastal defense gun off the beach covered in vegetation.  An old bomb shell and a pillbox on the shore.  In addition, we discover the crater remnants of the hospital (bottom right picture).

I found a really great blog post that help confirm the type of artifacts we were looking at and viewing.  It is a cruiser who visited awhile ago, visit Nothing Unknown.

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We did the WWII tour on Taroa, Maloelap in early November 2024.  Be sure to read WWII Part I where we find bunkers, ammunition depots, anti-aircraft gun, coastal defense gun, the command center and more.

Maloelap WWII Remnants Part I

Leave a reply

There are so many Japanese WWII buildings, artifacts, and debris that I had to break it up into two long blog posts.  Wow, this is so very interesting, educational, and heart wrenching all at the same time. Walking around the main island is like walking through a history book, with shells scattered on the ground and strafing on the cement walls of bunkers and generator buildings. Large guns are scattered around the perimeter on the beach and the reef.

The Japanese started construction of the Taroa massive airbase (the main island on Maloelap) in 1935, in secret.  This was in anticipation of the war and completely against The League of Nations (which they subsequently withdrew from).  America did not know the base existed until 1942!  There are over 350 buildings, wrecks, and sites on Taroa Island.

The U.S. decided that Taroa would not be invaded but would be neutralized by air and naval bombardment. Over 4300 tons of explosives were dropped on this little island lined with white beaches and towering palm trees.  The Japanese fought heroically to keep their airfield operational but it was too much and they were cut off from all of their supply ships. The plan was to slowly starve any resistance to a standstill and that is exactly what the U.S. did.

The Remains of the Destruction

We are anchored in an ideal spot behind a lovely reef with cool breezes.  We look over to the island of Taroa which looks like any typical island paradise but it is steeped in WWII history.  It is here on this tropical coral island, covered in palm trees, and surrounded by white sandy beaches where thousands of soldiers and locals died.  The ruins of this WWII legacy can still be explored today.

The 150+ locals living on the island have learned to live with the rotting buildings, planes, bunkers, ships, and weapons.    Whatever could be reused is adopted for a more peaceful purpose while the rest fades slowly away into the jungle overgrowth.

“L” Shaped Pier

The reversed “L” shaped pier built by the Japanese in the late 1930’s is still in use today despite it being decayed and decrepit. The pier was made of concrete reinforced with iron in the shape of a backwards “L”.  It was filled with sand and coral rubble to increase its operational use and extends 70 meters (230′) from the shore.

The locals use it for a small boat landing and fishing in spite of it being shattered by extensive bombing.

Communications Center

The Command and Radio C (also called Communication Center) is located just outside the main village.  It is really eerie as it’s two story building stands strong and proud having endured rounds and rounds of bombs.  The kids showing us around gleefully run inside to play.  As I follow behind them it is hard not to feel the shadows of the soldiers who walked the halls over 80 years ago.

I enter with trepidations, but soon get swept up in the impressive build of the building.  The doors have got to be 6-8″ of solid steel and the windows are at least .5 meters thick. However, you can still see evidence of the severe damage by the explosives despite the extraordinary build, 

 

Not sure it is safe to walk around here let alone have children playing here, but they do.

Coastal Defense Gun

Imagine driving your dinghy up to shore to greet the Mayor and the first thing you see is a massive sunken ship and a enormous coastal defense gun.  It is a little more than disturbing.  The long barrel of the coastal defense gun is still pointing across the empty horizon looking for its target.

This steel coastal gun is a Type 45 mounted on a gun base and facing north.  It has an elevation of +43° and has an indirect fire capability.  This gun originally sat on “shore” where they dug a pit, laid concrete as the base, then secured the gun.  As you can see, the shore has eroded and most of the base is submerged now.  The shore used to extend all the way out, past the gun to the other submerged iron mess that we could not identify (lower photo).

Anti-Aircraft Defense Gun

We find an intact Japanese Type 88 (1928) 75 mm anti aircraft gun  was mounted on a cement base and pointing aimlessly at the empty, beautiful blue sky. This was a standard anti aircraft weapon for the Japanese. The breechblock is a horizontal sliding, semi-automatic design which opens on recoil and closes upon insertion of a shell. The recoil system is hydropneumatic.

These two relics were found on the southern end of Taroa.

Landing Craft

Between the coastal defense gun and the “L” shaped pier is an old, rusted, Landing Craft (LC-1250) built in the 1950s.  This ship is 30 meters (100′) long still has most of its super structure.  The U.S. government gave this landing craft to RMI government to carry cargo between the atolls.  It was scuttled and left on this beautiful soft sandy beach in the 70’s.

Bunkers

Our tour guide, and the local Policeman, Arry Latty has one of the few intact and currently in use bunkers on his property.   He used to live inside the bunker jbut has since moved out to a neighboring home.  These structures were constructed to last centuries. 

Arry allowed us to go inside and explore one of the two bunkers.  They are short, but long, narrow spaces that could easily house over a dozen people on each side.  They are equipped with super thick windows and gun placement windows (for lack of better description).  Everything inside is rounded or beveled to reduce sharp edges and injury.  Arry mentioned that his village would use this  space in the event of a cyclone, so they are still protecting the locals today. 

We stumble across several other bunkers that are covered in vegetation and “not habitable” according to Arry.  The bunkers in the forest are camouflaged and covered which make them hard to see from the sky (and the ground) and keeps them cool inside (if you could get inside). 

Ammunition Depot

The ammunition depot is a massive concrete storeroom that used to store a significant amount of the explosives.  The exterior building is completely hidden in the jungle and covered by vegetation.  There are two sets of gargantuan steel doors which still move today — with a lot of effort.

You can still see the concrete entry where the trucks used to load and unload the ammunition.  Inside is a massive chamber with large concrete reinforced posts and enormous steel supports.  Many cement bags were left behind.  It is easy to imagine racks and racks of explosives carefully stored inside.

On the side of one of the walls is a gigantic hole where the ammunition depot was hit.  The cement and rebar forced inward from the massive blast.  It is actually surprising to see how well intact this building is considering it suffered from heavy bombing.

We found what we think is another ammunition depot deep on the other side of the island.  it has the same double steel doors and inside is a vast space supposed by concrete columns (top 3 photos).  We also stumbled on another building that had a round, steel piece on the ceiling/roof.  Clearly both were severely damaged. 

Come back for our next blog post where we share the remains of the hospital, pillboxes, an explosive shell, Zero airplanes and more.

I found a really great blog post that help confirm the type of artifacts we were looking at and viewing.  It is a cruiser who visited awhile ago, visit Nothing Unknown.

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We did the WWII tour on Taroa, Maloelap in early November 2024.  Be sure to read about the WWII History in Maloelap found on our last blog post.

Maloelap’s WWII History

Leave a reply

Our first outer atoll in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) is Maloelap.  We are so excited to get out Majuro to experience true Marshallese life and culture.  Our passage was relatively easy with very light winds, no swell, and a half moon up at 12:30am. We were able to sail the first 13 hours (66 miles) and then we lost the wind at 2:30am.  We turned on one engine and continued our slow trip for a safe arrival at the pass well after sunrise.  From anchor to anchor it was 106nm and it took 21 hours.

This coral atoll consists of 71 motus or small islands and lies in the Ratak Island Chain.  If you were to add up the total land area you will find that it is only 9.8 square kilometers (3.8 square miles).  However, the enclosed lagoon is 972 square kilometers (375 square miles).  The total population across 5 islands and several villages is said to be just over 400 people.

The main village and the administrative center is located on Taroa Island.  This is where we head to first to pay our respects to the mayor and/or his representative.   You might recall that we had to get permits from each mayor of every atoll we wanted to visit.  We provided our estimated dates, length of stay and reason for visiting.  All but one permit was approved.

We were blessed with a beautiful rainbow as we entered the pass and as soon as we dropped the hook the local policeman, Arry greeted us.  He asked for our permit and then promptly asked if we could help him fix his outboard.

Maloelap’s History

The German Empire claimed Maloelap, along with the rest of RMI in 1885.  However, after WWI, the island came under the South Seas Mandate of the Empire of Japan.

The Japanese first started building on Maloelap around 1935 after her withdrawal from the League of Nations.  They established weather and lookout stations throughout RMI.  Taroa, the main island on Maloelap quickly became the center of the Japanese military.  They built a 4,800′ airstrip (originally called WWII Japanese Runway “A”).  A second 4,100′ airstrip was built on the neighboring motu called Kaven.

Back on Taroa, the Japanese command centers, ammunition depots, hospital, laundry facilities, water and fuel tanks, built bunkers, barracks, hangars, service shops, a large pier with a crane, two small work docks, a channel and anchorage pillars. In addition, they built a large power station on nearby Pigete island which supplied Taroa with power via a 3 mile long underwater submarine cable.

The Americans were surprised by the infrastructure that was secretly built by the Japanese.  It was a full-service Naval air base.

WWI in Maloelap

The U.S. captured and took control of Majuro and Kwajalein (the two main islands in RMI).  Then the war came to Maloelap on the morning of  Feb. 1, 1942 with two raids.

The first air raid totaled five Grumman F4F “Wildcat” aircraft with two 100-pound bombs each. Between Feb. 1942 and Aug. 1945, U.S. aircraft dropped 3543 tons of bombs and U.S. ships shot 453 tons of shells onto Taroa (a very small atoll, yet a fully functioning naval base for the Japanese).

The attacks became more regular and then the supply lines were cut off to Taroa and the Japanese soldiers were left to starve to death.

Only 34% of the garrison survived (1,772 of the 3,097 souls).  The survival rate in Maloelap was the worst of all bases in the Marshall Islands.  Air raids, diseases, accidents, suicides, and starvation killed most of the soldiers and many Marshallese.  

Since the war, many, if not most of the buildings, planes, guns, and still remain on the island.  However, the vegetation has completely taken over and time has had a severe impact on the remains.  

In the photo below you can see how much erosion has occurred on this island.  The entire island of Eoon-epje is now gone or submerged (even during low tide).

The WWII Remnants on the Southern End of Taroa

We start our WWII explorations on the Southern end of Taroa as it is right in front of the boat. Taroa was connected to Eoon-epj island by a 700′ long, 20′ wide causeway which had a narrow gauge railroad track ending at a terminal point.  This terminal point is still visible today by a lone pillar.

We also find (2) railway cars and some random pieces of the railway track.

On one of our adventures I even found an old Japanese glass fishing float.  Sweet As!

Bomb and Bullet Casings

I was disappointed that we had not found any bomb encasements or shells on our tours around Taroa.  And then we walked the Southern End of the island and hit the motherload!  We found several pieces and a few intact bomb encasements.

We also found a lot of ammunition shells.  These are actually pretty big.  We found tons of fragments and about two dozen empty intact casings on the reef.

This is a sample of my silly husband having fun exploring. Top left he is pretending to be part of the whack-o-mo game.

There is a lot of history, historical artifacts, and places to explore.  We will break up the Maloelap atoll in several different blog posts so stay tuned.

Coming up:  We explore Japanese bunkers, the sunken supply ship Terushima Maru, coastal guns, zero airplanes, pillboxes, water tanks, command center, radio buildings and more.

Interesting websites:

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events. We arrived in Maloelap toward the end of October 2024.  Very cool sunken treasures in Enemonit: DC-3 plane, (2) Huey Helicopters, and a ferry – check out the blog post.