- No place on this island, there was actually,
that wasn't a front.
- Sixty years ago I probably thought
I'd never want to see this place again.
- The least I can say is rest in peace.
- We had two of the best units
fighting against each other.
- We killed 52 Japanese soldiers.
This sounds kind of cold blooded,
but it's one of the best experiences I had on the island.
- Thank god for the peace.
- Came here when I was very young,
and started exploring,
and I've spent many hours in the Marine Corp archives
studying, researching and exploring the island
in a battle survey.
So this is really neat to have
the opportunity to be here with a couple of veterans
who actually fought here.
Bill Cumbaa was an officer, a platoon leader,
in the 7th Marines.
He lasted an entire battle.
And very rare for a platoon leader to last
without getting hit.
His perspective of the battle
is different from Lee Smith's.
The thing that's really neat about this
is Lee Smith's tank is still on the island.
It'll be neat to see him climb in that tank after 60 years.
- It's fantastic!
Who would have thought 60 years ago
I probably thought I'd never want to see this place again.
And now I'm so excited about coming back I can hardly wait.
- A little bit different .
- Very very different.
- A little grown up.
A little more greenery than you remember, huh?
- Back in the, not, not just a little bit, a lot more.
Actually the bombardment just took the,
the forestry right off.
- You can see remnants.
- The Japanese docks.
- One, two and three.
- What is it?
- The Land of Enchantment?
- The Land of Enchantment, right.
Peleliu's the Land of Enchantment.
- Don't you see this beach looks so much different today,
60 years later.
- A whole lot better.
- Oh, a lot better.
- One of the main things that I remember
is a particular cave that we were assigned,
actually we were assigned to take a certain ridge,
and by the time we worked our way up to the ridge,
it was getting dark, and I knew it would be suicide
if we tried to climb that ridge.
And we dug foxholes along East Road.
We started getting fire from the top of the ridge.
Japs were all over the ridge,
just firing point blank at us.
And if we exposed ourself the least bit, we got hit.
A Japanese soldier had been in a foxhole
right by the side of the road.
He would jump up and throw himself on the track of the tank,
and pull the pin on his explosives
and blow himself to kingdom come of course,
and also disable the tank.
In the meantime we were hunkered down,
you know, couldn't expose a finger.
Finally the third tank
did make it to us, and I said "It might be a good idea
"to put a few shots of the 75mm cannon
"into the mouth of the cave."
And we killed 52 Japanese soldiers running out of that cave.
And there was actually a mound of dead Japanese soldiers--
- Right on top of the other. - One on top of the other.
This sounds kind of cold blooded,
but it's one of the best experiences I had on the island
because as you know, on the type warfare we were having
on Peleliu, you had to dig 'em out,
the enemy out one at a time.
- See that one shell hit, that's probably from the
75 right there. - It hit there.
- Yeah I imagine so, it, probably,
aimed a little high, and...
Right now there's the mouth of the cave.
- Right there.
- See it was torched, you can see the color,
it looks kind of blackened.
- Oh yeah. - Yes.
- From the fire.
I'm gonna help you down, you guys.
- Oh good.
- So let me get down first.
- Of course, they were running out of here
just a few, just where we passed by.
- Well you can tell just looking in here Bill,
there's all kinds, - Yeah.
- everything's torched.
- Gracious alive.
- There you go, step, good, good.
Okay, good job.
- Okay, here you go.
- Okay, oop, ,
got you, I got you. - Are you sure?
- Get your bearings, right there.
- Okay.
- Look at that, see how it's scorched?
See the metal scorched?
Just amazing.
- What you're seeing...
- Look at the tabi, look at the tabi here,
it's all scorched black, the Japanese shoe.
- Yeah. - Oh yeah, look at that.
- I guess this cave burned for two days,
according to the report, the official reports.
- You know this is where the big toe was,
and then the rest of it--
- You got it, yup, exactly, that's right.
Now come and take a look over here.
I'll kind of support you so you don't slip on the rock.
This is where the cave goes completely through the ridge.
It's actually on a staggered level.
Now that's a good drop, 40 feet at least.
See it going down there. - Man look at it.
- Yeah, some kind of opening where it goes on.
- I wonder how many square feet
there is in this thing.
It would hold a bunch of ammunition.
- Oh man. - Or anything else.
- This and that, look at that.
- I found this key in one of
the crevices of the cave here.
- Well I'm satisfied there were people
actually living in here.
- Oh yeah.
- This is evidence that the cave cooked off.
You can see it, 20mm projectile that exploded.
- Back in '44, a few days afterward,
they said that this smoked and exploded for 48 hours,
after we fired the 75 millimeters.
- That's confirmation
right there. - And that is really.
- I mean look at the black timbers in here
and the walls, that means this thing was smoking.
But over here you can actually see a bomb,
the remains of one that exploded.
So perhaps this is a ammunition storage cave,
and that's why they ran out of here so fast.
- That certainly explains why they were coming out
as fast as they could possibly make it.
- You have a good idea where he fought in the ridges?
- Oyama.
Which is the Japanese term for the southern ridges.
Ah!
Oh, looks, uh, okay...
Oh, he was an officer.
It shows his rank as an officer.
He was in the last command post cave.
This color bearer, was with the Colonel Nakagawa.
He would have destroyed the regimental colors on Peleliu
in the last command post cave.
That's where he probably died.
That picture I have at home.
Picture of Colonel Nakagawa and his color bearer.
And those were the ones who were killed
in the last command post cave.
This is overwhelming, it blows my mind.
- This is all the caves on Peleliu.
All these are caves, all the, okay?
Now the last command post cave,
here's a picture of it.
Colonel Nakagawa's last
command post cave.
A communication cave, and this is where
Colonel Nakagawa shot himself.
His brother was definitely part of the
elite Japanese Army, one of the best regiments.
You should be very proud that he fought with
the best of the best, and went up against
the best marine regiment, the 1st Marine Division.
So you had two of the best units
fighting against each other.
Tell him I'd be honored
to take him to the cave.
- Now this is a great day because
we can take him back to the cave
and we can take Mr. Sushita back to his cave, too.
Here's an archival picture taken in 1944
right after the battle.
And this is the last pocket of Japanese resistance.
It's no easy task, like Bodman was saying,
because it's very rugged terrain.
So of course they held out in all the caves
that lined the bases of the ridges and sometimes
at the top of the ridges.
And it shows the valley, it's denuded,
there's no vegetation, it's all blasted clean.
And here it is, uh, today, and you can see
it's very disorienting, there's a lot of jungle growth.
The valley we're entering is called
Death Valley by the Americans.
This is a Japanese memorial, at the entrance to the valley.
A valley that the Japanese heavily defended,
it was their last stand, was right here,
and the last command post was deep in this valley.
Americans had a very tough time getting through here.
They couldn't because of stiff resistance.
You can see some of the artifacts they've found
around the caves in this area,
there's many caves that are lining the valley here.
- It's very slippery.
Be careful of the rocks and the roots.
- This is a napalm bomb.
Jelly-gasoline, dropped from the airplanes.
So this is what they burned the foliage and caves...
- A Japanese cave.
- Last command post.
This was the communication cave, where the last message
was transmitted to Koror, a Sakura Sakura.
Perhaps one of these canteens is his brothers?
- Oh, .
- A concussion grenade.
A Japanese hand grenade.
This is quite an honor, it's amazing, it's...
Never dreamt this would happen,
to be in here in the same cave
that his brother probably died in.
Japanese radio set.
There were bones found in this cave and
the adjacent cave that you were just in.
Both caves had remains.
It's a, it looks like a toe, toe, from the toe.
- I guess it's trite to say it,
but the serenity is just overwhelming.
Now if you see where those breakers are out there,
about halfway the distance between us and them,
is when the fire first started being laid out,
it was just a steady line,
and then we'd just keep moving forward,
and getting those that where in ahead of 'em.
And the ships stayed 18,000 yards offshore
to get away from the Japanese artillery.
- Those that were lucky enough to be
ahead of the firepower got on the shore,
and established a beachhead.
- And here's a picture of the sand,
this is right where we're standing.
Of course that point would be over there.
Burning amphibian tractors on the shoals right here,
and of course, marines pinned down right here,
probably crawling to safety, to get off the beach,
trying to get off the beach.
And you can just imagine the gunfire.
- The noise, was tremendous
because the height of the fighting was in progress.
I mean it was war.
I frankly didn't know how I was going to handle combat.
And then when I came in there were several
dead marines that I had to step over to get on shore.
It was strange to say maybe,
but that gave me a feeling of confidence.
After I got past those poor marines that didn't make it,
I said, "Well I can handle what ever's ahead."
Wouldn't it be great, if everybody that had landed that day
or tried to land that day could be standing here with us?
- Yes. - Instead of the
- What an honor that be to - two of us.
- all, yes.
- Thank god for the peace.
- Let's see...
- The least I can say is rest in peace.
- When I think of the rich lives that you and I lead,
were privileged to have, having survived the war,
and to think of the guys we left behind
that never had a chance, they died.
Right?
The very prime,
- Yeah. - of life.
- The opportunity that came that,
for the 60th anniversary here on the island,
of the landing, that I could come back and see my tank.
- Yeah.
- Just hope that, uh, it's still good shape.
- This is the moment you've been waiting for,
60 years, to see your tank, and now we're here.
- Can't hardly wait.
Watch a log here.
- Watch your step you guys,
a lot of twigs, branches and coral.
Have a look at this!
That is one big cannon.
That's a 13mm right there.
Anti-aircraft cannon.
They had a top clip, they put a clip in the top--
- Yeah and you see, brass is still here.
- This sucker is still loaded!
What happened?
It didn't look like it didn't eject.
- No that means failed on an automatic
and maybe the oper, hand operator.
- The Japanese emplaced these on the beaches,
this is what they shot at boats with.
There's a couple of them on White Beach still emplaced.
This is the ribs here of the air cooled.
This is a flash suppressor,
so when the Japanese fired the gun
the Americans couldn't see the flash.
This whole area was a Japanese defensive position,
it had three cannons and several anti-aircraft guns.
So the mount was right here, and it must have taken a hit,
because this is bent and the gun's over here now.
Either someone moved it or it was blown over there.
- Hold on to me...
- I got a visual on Lady Luck you guys!
Careful, watch your step, loose rocks.
- Yeah I can see the rear of it!
- Be careful, come on this way.
See, well I don't see where I see D12
where I scraped it off, maybe it's on the other side.
- It, it, it's a, I can see part of it.
- Well, let's go
on the other side, - Very little bit left.
- a machine gun tripod it looks like, 30 caliber.
- That's something, ain't this amazing!
This thing's still, this-this, still this good,
after so long!
- Now the valves--
- Well the engine's out,
the transmissions are all in it,
see the floor's all rusted out.
The mortar that did the damage that caused all this thing,
it landed in this position and the tank just raised up,
in the explosion, and the superstructure underneath,
for the gun emplacement, was just blown away.
And we slid forward and down, and right...
- Probably well camouflaged.
- Oh yes, probably a foot or more of...
- Dirt on top of it,
to, to, conceal what it was.
- Yeah .
- How did you happen to find this, Eric?
- Just hiking around, I came to the tank, and, uh,
I tried to research it for many years,
and I took a machete and I started scraping the turret
and revealed D12, which was painted up there,
and so I knew which tank it was.
- Looking good.
D is Dog Company, D Company.
- 60 years later, this is quite a sizable jungle
that we're in and some huge trees.
Do you remember, had all, had all
of this growth been leveled
by the pre-invasion bombardment?
- And when you look at these trees, where'd they come from?
They weren't here then!
- Conceivably, you could have run over some
fairly good size, treelets anyway, .
- Well, you're looking at a vehicle
that when it's completed is 31-foot long,
10-foot one inch wide, and 10-foot one inch high.
That's a good size piece of material,
especially if it was coming at you.
It'd scare the living daylights out of you.
Even our own troops.
But you see how thin that is, you could actually,
30 caliber shoot through the pontoons
and into the inside.
We didn't have much armor for the side, but the front.
- Looks like you left it in first gear there, Lee.
I'm just kidding,
I don't now anything about these levers, but,
your levers are right here,
where you would have drove the tank.
- There's the slot if I can get it open.
It's all rusted shot.
And you can look out of that slot when you're driving,
and when you lose the periscope you can use that.
I would raise that up and I could either
throw a grenade out through that
or use my Thompson submachine gun
for something in front of me.
That's the tow hitch,
and when I knock a tree down I hit it right there.
It's amazing.
You did your job well, Lady.
You're still looking good,
I don't care what anybody else says.
To me you're great.
- And a shell casing.
- I understand that maybe a couple
of the Japanese soldiers who were on Peleliu
are going to be here.
I'm looking forward to meeting with these people
and probably having an interpretor,
that we can actually talk to them,
but just patting them on the back
and smiling, that says a lot in itself.
- And remember, you got to bow, remember?
- Oh, oh yes,
- Oh yes, we got to bow. - I forgot about that.
- My name is
- I'm Bill.
- Bill. - Bill, I'm Bill.
- I'm Bill.
A great, a great moment. - Lee!
I'm Lee.
We, we've been waiting to meet you.
- I was looking for this moment, 10 times,
more than you guys!
This is, uh, this was him.
- Oh really?
Yeah?
- And this is Semika, Commander and General.
- When you were down
in the cave, and we were dropping bombs
from planes,
shooting these heavy guns from the ships,
did it bother you down in the cave?
- What is that?
- Ahhh!
- The little oblong?
- Big gun?
- Jungle, so you must walk little bit.
But I can walk, can you go with me?
- I can, I can walk!
- If you go slow, if you go slow.
- I'm just a kid!
I'm just a kid, now you, you're 84, I'm 83!
- Hey! - Look at that work!
- Yes.
- Yeah that's a mammoth.
- Man.
I would have brought , Lord here I come.
- When you think of this fortification here,
and to think on this small island,
there are hundreds and hundreds, maybe not just like it,
but just as formidable, it's incredible.
- You know, if we get permission from the government,
that the president and the governor,
to open up a cave, would you be ready to do it?
- I hope it works out that way.
- There's a lot of sealed caves on the island,
that, they've never opened one.
Now it seems like we have permission to do such,
and they have over 9000 Japanese missing in action here.
Several of them were sealed in the caves.
We'll go up right in here, this is the draw.
Okay watch out for those mimosa thorns you guys.
Don't forget they shelled this area for almost three months.
So, just watch where you step.
I'll point out any ordnance I see.
Especially mortar rounds, so...
Watch your step it's very slippery.
- That's a lamp.
- Huh? - Lamp.
- Lamp? - Yeah, camp lamp like this.
- Good eyes Godwin!
Here we got a 60mm mortar round
and a live Japanese hand grenade.
This one still has the pin in it.
Look at the pin, right there.
60mm, these are all over the place, everywhere.
Oh you guys, come here come here come here, look at this!
Part of the, look at this, part of the wreckage
of that plane that was shot down over the ridges.
The wings right on the other side of the ridge here.
Throughout the valley here
is wreckage of the plane.
There's pieces everywhere.
We can find the exact aircraft
and the crew members who were on this plane.
They were all killed of course.
I got 16956, this is huge find, a huge find!
This is a 30-caliber machine gun ammunition case.
Yeah, okay, ammunition 30.
So this is machine gun, used all over the place,
but this one's in really good shape.
Has its lid on, it's in fantastic condition,
considering it's been almost 60 years, almost to the day.
Here's a helmet in between the draw here,
American helmet, obviously a casualty.
A lot of Americans were shot, machine gun,
right through the valley.
This is a trap in here.
But as they descended this hill to assault this ridge,
this is Brother number one, the Japanese laid down
a murderous crossfire right here you guys.
- Oh you can just
- Right through here, and - look at the terrain, this
is one... - they forced the Americans
back up this ridge.
The horrific casualties right here.
Guys this cave right here,
obviously served as a machine gun position.
I could tell by the way the coral's stacked up here
there's a deep cave, and my goodness,
that field of fire was right down the draw.
No doubt, right here and right here were positions.
Very well protected.
Now here's the cave you guys.
Now this one I'd really love to open.
Could be a time capsule.
The cave's right over here.
How you guys doing?
All right.
So this is a sealed cave, right,
adjacent to the pillbox, or casement.
This served as a shelter cave for this Japanese gun crew.
- It looked like every time we would look up there
there would be another piece of fire,
another location of fire coming back at us, so,
it wasn't even a safe point then, to be,
because like, like you know, there's no place on this island
there was actually that wasn't a front.
- Come on get up!
Come on, you're all right!
- Fire in the hole!
- This is the cave, and let's get started.
You have to be very careful of live ordnance here.
I think if we clear initially the top soil,
just be careful what we're doing.
- Stones or roots?
- Yeah, roots.
- Roots?
- There are bones in there, skulls in there.
- We got, uh, we got bones.
- What do you think Eric?
- Oh I see Japanese helmets, part of a skull,
a bayonet, a bayonet scabbard, mess tins,
tins of food, I count three helmets down here.
Ammunition, two hand grenades
with the pins still in them,
and a gas mask canisters and of course human remains.
Just a time capsule of September 15th, 1944.
I feel like I'm in a tomb.
I got to get out of there guys.
It's a tomb, I don't feel right in there.
I'll take one last picture.
Oh my god.
- Nobody can question that the Japanese
were experts at defensive warfare,
there's no question about it.
This is a formidable, formidable position,
- Tough problem position, I tell 'ya.
- And I think we could put some more of
our biggest stuff on this,
it wouldn't have taken it out.