Peleliu

Peleliu was settled long before European contact, part of the chiefly order of southern Palau, with villages, taro patches and stone platforms on the flat ground behind the reef. Spanish and then German claims changed little for the islanders, but Japanese administration after the First World War brought planters, traders and finally the military, which in the years before 1944 built an airfield across the middle of the island and fortified the coral ridges behind it. Palauan families were moved off Peleliu to other islands of Palau in 1943.

The American landings began on 15 September 1944 on the west-coast beaches. The battle expected to take a few days lasted into November, and the fighting on the Umurbrogol ridge — Bloody Nose Ridge to the Marines — was among the costliest of the Pacific campaign, with heavy American losses and a Japanese garrison of about ten thousand almost entirely killed. Its strategic value has been argued over ever since, because the airfield was barely used for the invasion of the Philippines it was meant to support. Small groups of Japanese soldiers held out in the caves until 1947.

Islanders returned to a wrecked landscape and rebuilt at Kloulklubed. The battlefield was recognised as a United States National Historic Landmark, and the island has slowly become a place of pilgrimage for American and Japanese families as well as a destination for divers. Ordnance clearance has continued for decades, and the population has fallen as people moved to Koror and abroad.

Life here follows Palauan custom in a very small setting. Clans hold land through the female line, senior women choose the men who hold titles, and the chiefs of the state are consulted on anything that touches land or the reef. Church — Catholic and Protestant — anchors the week, and funerals, first-birthday ceremonies and title ceremonies draw relatives back from Koror and overseas, with the same exchanges of food, cash and traditional money as elsewhere in the country.

The battle is part of local identity without being the whole of it. The state maintains the memorials, guides learn the campaign in detail from both sides, and families are used to receiving veterans' descendants, Japanese bereaved relatives and researchers. Human remains and ordnance still surface, and there is a settled expectation that the ground is treated with care.

Everyday manners are those of a place where everyone is related or known: a raised hand to passing vehicles, food pressed on visitors, children looked after by whoever is nearest. Fishing skill and a productive taro patch carry status, betel nut is chewed in the evenings on porches, and English is used with visitors while Palauan is the language of the village. Quiet is valued, and the island empties early.

Around five hundred people live on Peleliu, most of them in Kloulklubed. The state government, the school and the dispensary provide the salaried jobs, alongside guesthouse keeping, guiding, boat work and construction; a good share of household food still comes from the reef and from gardens of taro, cassava, banana and coconut. Boats run to Koror for supplies, banking, hospital appointments and secondary schooling, and a trip to town is an event planned around the weather.

Electricity comes from generators, increasingly supplemented by solar, and water from rainfall and wells, so outages and dry spells are part of the routine. The shop's stock depends on the last delivery, and prices reflect the freight. Tourism is modest and weather-dependent — day trippers from Koror, divers, and small groups of visitors with a family connection to the battle — which makes guiding and rooms a useful but unreliable income.

The day starts at first light and slows through the afternoon heat, with fishing, gardens and repairs done early and late. Younger people leave for Koror, Guam, Hawaii and the US mainland for work and study, and many return for ceremonies. Ordnance clearance, the upkeep of the memorials and the state of the dock and the roads are the recurring subjects of local discussion.

Eating on Peleliu is close to what the island produces. Reef fish are grilled, fried or made into soup, and eaten raw as sashimi with soy and lime, a habit left by the Japanese decades; mangrove crab appears at celebrations and is prized. Taro, grown in wet patches behind the village, is the food with ceremonial weight, and cassava, sweet potato, breadfruit and banana fill out the rest, often cooked with coconut milk. A thick soup of taro leaves with coconut milk and crab or fish is the dish most often set before a guest.

Guesthouse kitchens cook for whoever is staying, so meals are family cooking rather than restaurant menus — fish of the day, rice, a garden vegetable, fruit picked nearby. Rice, tinned meat, instant noodles, frozen chicken and soft drinks arrive from Koror, and the shop's shelves show how much of the modern diet is imported.

Coconut water drunk straight from the nut, calamansi juice and strong coffee are the everyday drinks, with imported beer in the evening. Betel nut, wrapped with lime and pepper leaf, is chewed widely, and hospitality means being fed more than expected and taking fruit away afterwards.