ABSTRACT
The indigenous cultural and sacred landscape of the island, formed over millennia of settlement and tradition, was erased, with far-reaching social and psychological consequences for the native Palauans. However, some seventy years ago in 1944, Peleliu looked very different, a smoking wasteland of soiled white rock, its vegetation burned away by more than two months of desperate fighting, its indigenous people dispersed, its sacred cultural landscapes obliterated by one of the worst battles in the entire Pacific Theatre of WWII. The hopeless odds and fatalistic defence of Peleliu almost literally to the last man are also respected as representing key values of patriotism and self-sacrifice. War memorials to the fallen defenders span the whole political spectrum, from personal shrines to large Shinto complexes, in addition to others sponsored by nationalist organizations; inside the caves, some veterans and military groups have deposited small Buddhist figurines in the deep dark.
