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.
They had the most beautiful nativity set on display.
