Tag Archives: marshall islands

WWII Remnants on Wotje: Part II

In our blog post “WWII Remnants on Wotje: Part I” we discover loads of anti-aircraft guns, coastal defense guns, a cannon, Betty Bomber engines and propellers and more.  But we had discovered so many more artifacts in Wotje that we spit it over two blog posts.  In Part II, we will show you more WWII buildings, artifacts and Japanese signage.

We found this fallen water tank in the jungle, along with an exploded shell, and a cannon sticking straight up into the sky.  One of the things we noticed is that the WWII remnants on Wotje are in far greater disarray than those on its neighboring island of Maloelap.

We were not sure what this WWII building used to be but it was some type of manufacturing plant based on the machinery inside.  It was way too dilapidated to risk going inside.

WWII Defense Bunkers

We walked the entire perimeter of the island (about 7.5 miles).  There were several places that had 1.5m tall walls made of concrete and stone.  Of course, they were not 100% in tact, but they were still standing.  About every 15m they had a gun placement hole.

The shoreline was full of these defense bunkers.  As you can see most are in complete shambles, but then again, they are 80 years old.  We did find two gun placement attachments in the widows (lower right photos) which was a first find for us.

We also discovered some new types of defense bunkers (top right and bottom right).  These are new versions to us as we did not see anything like this on Maloelap.  Wonder why they had wide open windows?  It seems to leave them pretty exposed.

Japanese Signs from WWII

Another new find on Wotje was this bunker which still had two, original Japanese signs inside.  The top right says “danger flammable’s” loosely translated.  The other sign above the door could not be translated as too many characters were faded.  So, inside this large bunker is another locked room with a massive steel door.  This is where Matt is standing.  They stored their ammunition in this room.

Another defense bunker with a Japanese sign. Unfortunately it is illegible and we were unable to translate it.

Making the Best out of the Wreckage

The building in the top left used to be the Seaplane Command center.  Wotje built a seaplane dock and had dozens of seaplanes coming and going at any given time.  The Japanese used these seaplanes to scout out the enemy.  Today, this building is used as a storage building for drums of fuel (top right).  The middle right and bottom photo are both WWII buildings that have been converted into homes for the locals. Look at the bottom photo with its huge steel door for both the window and the front door.

We found several pieces of machinery that we could not figure out their original purpose.  We have guesses…but who knows.  The top left photo might be some type of coral grinding machine for making cement.  The top middle photo is a NAK 3DM engine powering a pump of some sort….maybe to pump water from the sea to a generator?

We hope you have enjoyed coming on this walk through WWII history.  It was a great learning process for us, but also truly tragic and heartbreaking to think of all the lives lost.

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred during the 2nd week of November 2024.  Be sure to catch Part I of WWII Remnants on Wotje.

WWII Remnants on Wotje: Part I

We reluctantly leave the beautiful Maloelap atoll for a new adventure.  A short 84 miles north is the atoll called Wotje (pronounced whoat jay) which is known as the “Garden Atoll.” Wotje, like its neighbor Maloelap, was a major Japanese base during World War II. We look forward to continuing our search for these relics.

This fairly large atoll is home to the island chain high school called Northern Islands High School and the college which are attended by students from nearby atolls. It also has a small power station, managed by the Marshalls Energy Company so all of the homes are equipped with electricity. 

The local police station proudly displays several shell casings in front of their building. There are 4 policemen who work on this island, but they have no jail and rarely have any problems.

Wotje WWII History

Wotje military development began quietly in the 1930’s with a major airbase construction starting in 1939.  The war came swiftly on February 1, 1942 with two raids by the U.S. Carrier aircraft.  The air-raid totaled 23 aircraft with 58 bombs, leaving behind a deadly legacy of destruction.

However, by mid-1943 the Japanese had developed Wotje into a major base with the construction of 2-runways, hangers, repair facilities, barracks, and living quarters.  Defense weapons were installed around the island, a large dock with a crane and a seaplane dock were built, and two runways (3500′ and 5000′).  Wotje was given 13 vessels as a guard force and seaplanes made regular visits and reconnaissance missions. At peak strength in December 1943, the atoll consisted of 3,300 men: 2,103 Navy, 770 airmen, and 429 Army personnel.

The U.S. returned late in 1943 and destroyed all Japanese aviation here, sunk all ships in the harbor, and the atoll was left to starve.  The atoll was continually bombarded until 1945. By the end of the war, over 60% of the garrison had died leaving only 1,244 survivors.  Casualties occurred from air raids, diseases, accidents, and suicides, but mainly from starvation.

The local church has defense weapon on their grounds.  This gun was removed from the large, steel, cargo ship, the Toyotsu Maru that sunk at the neighboring island of Egmedoi. 

Wotje’s Deadly Weapons

The perimeter of the island, especially the ocean side, was full of guns, which were a mixture of British and Japanese manufacture: six coastal defense guns, and six twin-mount dual purpose guns. The Japanese Army had brought an additional five field artillery guns. In addition, two 120 mm ship guns were emplaced as coastal defense guns.  The top is an anti-aircraft gun and the bottom two are coastal defense guns.

This bad boy with 5 barrels lived on a family’s property, right next to their home!  I appreciate the historical value of these WWII remnants but I cannot imagine living next to this horrid reminder of the war.

We almost walked right by this cannon which is almost completely covered in vegetation.  We just happened to be walking back from a bunker and spied it in the trees. Look how huge the gun hole is compared to Matt’s hand!

It is amazing to see the condition of these deadly weapons.  They are still standing, pointing off into the horizon looking for the enemy.  Matt was able to put his entire head in the gun hole!

WWII Aircrafts

During the war two squadrons of planes were temporarily stationed here, namely torpedo bombers (“Kate” & “Val”) and patrol bombers (“Nell” & “Betty”). At the beginning of the war the plane contingent of the 801st squadron, consisted of between 6 and 12 Kawanishi H6K flying boats (“Mavis”), which were later replaced by the larger H8K flying boats (“Emily’). We were not able to find the sunken planes in the lagoon, but we did find this massive propeller, from a Betty Bomber, right outside the local bank and post office.   This came from an extremely large aircraft as it has 14 pistons!

Inland, we found this Betty Bomber graveyard with (3) engines and propellers.  These are simply massive.  Right next to the engines was a large cannon that was fully intact (lower right photo).

Toyotsu Maru Sunken Ship

The Toyostu Maru is a gunboat warship that measured over 305′ long, 45′ wise, and 26′ deep weighing in at almost 3,000 tons!  She had two masts, one of which still lays across the deteriorating steel.  She was struck on the port side which beached her, but then she was used as target practice for many months leaving her virtually unrecognizable. 

This should be spelled Toyotsu Maru.

This should be spelled Toyotsu Maru.

Today, at low tide you easily see huge sections of the once enormous boat.  You can see her anchor chain all piled up (bottom right photo), her mast sticking out like a cannon, the gooseneck of one of her booms and other assorted boat parts.

The anchor chain is visible from above the water and yet it still piles 2 meters high below the water as well.

We return on another day to snorkel the wreck at low tide.  Top left is the spreader of the aft mast which can be seen in the photo above.  We also find a portion of its massive anchor which was well over 2 meters long and several cleats.

The rudder and prop were still intact.  Each rudder blade was over 2m long. And the writing was still on one of the prop blades.

This shipwreck has become a very active and flourishing coral reef with dozens of schools of fish.  Coral is growing all over the ship and its parts making it a truly fun place to discover.

A Rare Memorial

So many soldiers were lost with the sinking of the Toyotsu Maru that the Japanese erected a war memorial in their honor.

This bereavement memorial is located on the southern end of the  Wotje island. The memorial describes the vessel and its losses.  There were two memorials right next to each other. One was still standing and intact.  However, the 2nd one has fallen over and lays on its side next to its podium.  Unfortunately the writing is incredibly faded making it impossible to translate.

The gun displayed by the main church was reportedly removed from the Toyotsu maru.  Not sure why they removed the gun and placed it next to the church but here she sits.

We found so many WWII remnants that we had to break it up into 2 blog posts. So, be sure to check in with us for part II of this post.

Some cool links on Wotje’s WWII history:

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred during the 2nd week of November 2024.  Be sure to see the true beauty of Maloelap in our last blog post “Maloelap’s Beautiful Motus.”

Maloelap’s Beautiful Motus

Maloelap is known for its WWII artifacts but there is so much more to this beautiful atoll.  We discover several stunning motus including Enibin, Airik, and Bwokwankin.  

Enibin Island

We planned to stay on Taroa (the main island of Maloelap) longer than one day, but we had these weird westerly winds that forced us to leave.  We motor sailed across the lagoon (about 14nm) to the western most motu called Enibin.  There is no real “anchorage” and nobody living here.  Looks like a good spot to hang out for a day or two until the weather shifts.

We enjoy a beautiful and leisurely walk around the island which took us about an hour (2nm).  This was one of the rare opportunities where we could walk barefoot and or just in flip flops.  Usually we need true “shoes” to traverse over the coral and rocks.

The weather shifted south so we decided to head to the southern motu of Airik.

Airik Island

Airik island is located in the far south end of the Maloelap Atoll.  It has a few WWII artifacts as well (but not nearly as much as Taroa).  We anchored off the reef between Airik Island and Makar island. 

The image below shows Makar island and part of the reef that we are anchored in front of.  Makar is “uninhabited” but it does have one small “hut/house” which we believe is more of a weekend getaway than a residence. 

Airik has about 20 families living on the lagoon side.  Supposedly there is a small clinic and a school here but we did not adventure inland. It was strange because nobody came out of their homes to greet us so we couldn’t ask permission to walk around the village.  As we walked the 2 mile beach, one person was cleaning the stretch between his house and the beach  and said hello to us.  Totally different vibe than the previous Pacific island countries we have visited.

None the less, Airik is beautiful with a long beach dotted with beautiful palm trees.  We did come across this huge piece of metal (see Matt below).  We think it is part of the shipwreck “Danver”.

The Danver Shipwreck

The “Danver” shipwreck is a large iron hulled sailing vessel that is scattered across 30 square miles.  It is 29.5 meters long, with a 5.8 meter beam and sits “upright” in a max depth of 5.1m in the stern.

You can see part of its iron mast below.  Evidently the iron windlass, rudder, and anchor chain (still in the anchor locker) are still visible as well.  However, we went  to investigate at “low to mid-tide” and could not get close enough to the wreck to see it (too shallow).

The shipwreck has an unknown origin.  Some think it is a Spanish merchant ship circa WWII that the Japanese scuttled.  There is not much damage to the ship which leads historians to believe it was scuttled rather than sunk.  The chunks or piles of metal in the bottom photos are the remnants of the Danver Shipwreck.

Behind the Danver is another ship that is 32 meters long, sits upright, and is in 21 meters of water.  This ship can only be seen by diving (which we did not do).  Supposedly, this ship still has an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the bow and intact portholes with glass in them.  Would be cool to see.

There is also a Zero airplane (Mitsubishi A6M3 model 22A or zero) with one engine and bullet holes in the propeller somewhere out on the reef as well.  We did not find it.

We had a beautiful rainbow sunset on our last night.  It is so rare that we get to see the entire rainbow – such a special treat!

Bwokwankin Island

For such a funny name this is such a stunning motu.  There are 19 “adult” palm trees, dozens of teenager palms, and dozens of infant palms.  So, we call this palm tree island as it is easier to say than Bwokwankin.  This island is located on the east side of Maloelap.

During low tide, you can actually walk the entire sandbar as it stretches from Egeriben Island to Eien island. A long narrow stretch of beach!  The total walk being close to 4 miles each way!

We took “Sweetie” ashore and walked each direction over several days.  Super pretty with a slight breeze.  It was covered in rocks, coral, and pebbles – not the soft sand we had hoped for, but still beautiful.  I found a skeleton of a puffer fish and of course I cropped out all of the trash that lands on the windward side.  Lots of floats, shoes, and plastic bottles unfortunately (bottom left photo).

Walking in the other direction we circumnavigated two islands.  The lagoon side had a wee bit of shade, sandy, but no breeze.  The windward side had a nice breeze but you had to traverse over lots of rock, coral, and reef.  Always a trade off.

Lots of birds on this island and several crabs wanted to take us on but we refrained from starting a fight with them.

We really enjoyed our solitude in these three islands within Maloelap Atoll and are so grateful we had the weather to visit each of them.  But it was time to head back to the main island of Taroa to do our WWII remnant tour.

Taroa part II

We return to Taroa because we scheduled a tour of the WWII remnants on the island.  There are lots of pigs running around (along with cats, dogs, and chickens).  We enjoy some refreshing coconut milk and they tell us about their copra farming.

We mentioned earlier that the local policeman asked Matt to fix his outboard which he did.  Then people started coming out of the woodwork asking Matt to fix their generators.  At one point we had 2 on the boat and another 2 on shore waiting for him to repair.  Lucky for us he was 5 for 5 in the repairs.  We were rewarded with fresh caught lobster.  

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We were in Maloelap during the the end of October 2024.  We discover tons of WWII remnants that we shared in two different blog posts.  Here is Part I and here is Part II.