Payback for Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. That is how Chuuk Lagoon became a watery graveyard for scores of shipwrecks and Japanese aircraft.
The Micronesian islands of Chuuk, or Truk, became a key strategic seaplane and submarine camp for Japan during World War II.
The U.S. bombed the base starting in February 1944, and when it was all over 18 months later, at least 50 to 60 ships were sunk in the lagoon, and more than 5,000 Japanese soldiers and 1,000 Chuukese were killed.
Thanks to a recent grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program, work will begin on mapping three sunken ships that were never surveyed.
William "Bill" Jeffery, an archeology professor at the University of Guam, is spearheading the expedition to explore the wrecks and include the islanders’ stories about this battle in the Pacific.
"One time they thought of actually dropping an atomic bomb in June 1944. But they found that the bombing that they'd done in February had neutralized it fairly well. So they didn't do that, thankfully," he said.
"But they sent in wave after wave, it was actually 10 times more aircraft than the Japanese sent into Pearl Harbor."
Jeffery said when he arrived at the lagoon in 2001, he realized that stories from the islanders' perspective were overlooked. In addition to the deaths, many were pushed out of their homes and off their land.
He hopes his research will make the Chuukese point of view more widely known to those who visit Micronesia.
"So it's a combination of the underwater shipwreck, work in the marine biology, finding some new sites and sort of what's on the islands — Japanese sites and the Chuukese traditional sites that we want to portray. This is a holistic heritage from World War II, not just one or two aspects."
This interview aired on The Conversation on Feb. 28, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
