Peleliu "Dream Island" Littered With Deadly Relics-- Part 2

Continued from Oct. 24th.

Americans landed on the island's Orange Beach on September 15, 1944, and were caught in a major Japanese crossfire. An expected several day fight lasted almost three months. Some 10,700 Japanese troops were killed along with 2,300 U.S. Marines.

Peleliu's importance stemmed from an airstrip located there.

Today, Peleliu is becoming a tourist destination for Japanese and even American tourists. One Japanese man was seen putting sand from a beach into a plastic bottle as a souvenir.

The left-over ordnance is becoming very dangerous after nearly 70 years, especially as their safety mechanisms rust away.

There is a munitions disposal team that has, since 2009, removed 6,500 guns and other ordnance, 9 tons worth. Tourists are warned not to go roaming through the jungle.

A path has been cleared through Death Valley onto Bloody Nose Ridge where the heaviest casualties of the action took place.

Islanders were evacuated from Peleliu before the battle and when they returned, they didn't even recognize the place as it was so torn up by the fighting. Vegetation was burned to the ground and villages destroyed. At first, they sold war relics as scrap.

Some 500 people live on the island today and they would like to have an open-air air museum on it.

Remnants of War. --GreGen