ABSTRACT
During World War II, Chuuk Lagoon was home to about 10,000 local Chuukese and 40,000 Japanese. It was a major base for the Japanese who occupied it from 1914. The bombing of the base by the United States (US) military in February 1944 continued until the end of the war, during which time over 50 large ships were sunk in the lagoon, over 400 aircraft and thousands of land-based facilities destroyed, and 1,000 Chuukese and 5,000 Japanese were killed. Today the shipwrecks are revered as a ‘divers’ haven’ but they have suffered from salvage, then looting of artefacts since 1969. To the US, the destruction of Chuuk was a great tactical success, a pay-back to Pearl Harbor, and to the Japanese, the shipwrecks are a cemetery of the soldiers who could not return home. This chapter compares the different values, particularly the Chuukese values of the submerged World War II sites, and contrasts it with the terrestrial military sites on their islands to ascertain what meaning can be gained from this comparison.
