ABSTRACT
The grand historical narrative of the Pacific War – itself often marginalized in relation to the European and Eastern fronts – is conventionally told as a struggle between the Americans and their Commonwealth allies arrayed against the forces of Imperial Japan. This overlooks not only a variety of underrepresented groups within these combatant nations, but also entire countries (such as China and Korea) that made enormous sacrifices, but above all, it ignores the perspectives of the Pacific Islanders for whom the battlefields were and are ‘home’; in addition, wartime histories tend toward markedly androcentric perspectives. This chapter outlines a range of multicultural approaches to the material remains of the War, focusing on a case study of a single island – Peleliu, in the Republic of Palau – a hoped-for inspiration, and ultimately an arena for potential reconciliation in a region whose geopolitical tensions continue today.
