The team of Clear Ground Demining has come along and waves while the group departs. Matsutaro has brought his tour group back safely to the quayside. And gradually, younger generations are starting to show more interest in the island's history, says McQuillen, who volunteers at a local primary school. The authorities want to preserve Peleliu as a memorial and an open-air museum. Today, the focus isn't just on making the island safe for its 500 inhabitants and the vsitors, or about showing off overgrown tanks as tourist attractions. Some residents decorated their homes with old war equipment. And before it was made illegal to take artifacts off the island, Japanese and American tourists left with all kinds of items in their luggage. Engines and aircraft parts were stripped down, mixed with concrete and used to construct a quay wall. Because the fighting had removed all the signs and land demarcations, it was unclear who owned what, and land ownership disputes continue to this day.ДЄt first, the islanders sold war relics for scrap. It took them a long time to resume agriculture. The returning islanders, most of them fishermen, were fed canned tuna fish and meat. 'The US Navy distributed sunglasses because the naked chalk rocks reflected the light so brightly,' says former Marine McQuillen. The vegetation was burnt to the ground, their villages razed. The islanders were evacuated before the battle and didn't recognize their homeland when they returned.

It's impossible to understand the battle unless you've been to this jungle,' he says. For McQuillen, that gives the battle debris even greater significance. There are barely any eyewitnesses left here. On the hill, a member of Ballanger's team, an American called David McQuillen, says: 'My uncle died right here in a mortar attack.' He said he decided to join the team in memory of his uncle.ДЇor the islanders, World War II is a distant, abstract event that happened three generations ago. Ballanger warns tourists not to go roaming around the jungle.ДЄ cleared path leads 300 metres through Death Valley onto Bloody Nose Ridge which saw the heaviest casualties. Since the end of 2009, the team has removed some 6,500 guns and other ordnance - 9 tons in total. The former British soldier runs a munitions disposal team called Cleared Ground Demining which is hard at work on Peleliu.

Ordnance Destabilizing Over Time'Now after almost 60 years, the safety mechanisms are slowly rusting away,' warns Steve Ballanger. The old warplane isn't dangerous, but the munitions lying all around it are. The remains of a cockpit can be seen, along with the undercarriage and red paint on the fuselage. The group follows him to a heap of rusting metal 5 metres (16 feet) from the road. American veterans and their descendants come here too, to attend memorial services, for example.Д«ack on the main road, Matsutaro hits the brakes. A woman wearing a large sun hat is squatting in the shadow of a palm tree, staring out to sea. An elderly man with a hearing aid is filling sand into a plastic bottle with trembling hands. The island was a strategic target because of its airstrip. A total of 10,700 Japanese soldiers and 2,300 US Marines were killed in the battle for this tropical speck of land. 'The battle for Peleliu was only meant to take a few days but the fighting went on for almost three months.' 'The Americans were caught in heavy Japanese crossfire,' he explains. Matsutaro points out to the ocean and shows a black-and-white photo of the beach covered in thick smoke and with amphibious vehicles approaching the shore. He reassures visitors that they're safe if they stay close to him. His company Peleliu Adventures offers World War II tours. The 36-year-old guide fetched the group of tourists at the quayside and took them to the beach. 'The Americans landed here on Orange Beach on Sept. Much of the battle debris remains lethal. No one moved them after the firing ceased. Wrecked warplanes and tanks lurk in the lush green vegetation. Rusty grenades and rifles still lie strewn across the island. The 'Land of Enchantment,' which belongs to the island nation of Palau, was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific during World War II. The water glistens in varying shades of turquoise, the sand on the beaches is as fine as dust and a balmy breeze eases the tropical heat.

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