CNN
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A US Marine Corps plane has landed on a rebuilt runway on a World Conflict II-era Japanese airfield on the Pacific island of Peleliu, website of one of many Marines’ bloodiest battles of the conflict and now a potential US basing choice in a method to counter China.

The KC-130 Hercules transport plane touched down on the 6,000-foot runway on June 22 in what a Marine Corps press launch known as “a big and triumphant return to this iconic World Conflict II website.”

Marine engineers had been engaged on rebuilding the runway for months, clearing brush, eradicating bushes and guaranteeing no unexploded ordnance remained from the World Conflict II battle on the island, which is a part of the island nation of Palau.

Greater than 1,500 US troops and practically 11,000 Japanese have been killed on Peleliu between August and November of 1944, in response to the US Naval Historical past and Heritage Command, which famous that some Japanese troops hid within the island’s jungle and weren’t discovered till two years after World Conflict II ended.

One US unit, the first Marine Regiment, suffered 70% casualties in six days of combating on the island.

The Marines named the rebuilt touchdown strip the “Sledge” runway in honor of a veteran of the Peleliu battle, Pfc. Eugene Sledge, a mortarman on the island who wrote about it in a memoir “With the Outdated Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa,” and whose recollections have been portrayed within the HBO miniseries “The Pacific.”

Sledge described Peleliu as “an alien, unearthly, surrealistic nightmare just like the floor of one other planet.”

Now the runway “bridges the previous and the long run, honoring WWII sacrifices whereas enhancing regional safety and cooperation,” the Marine Corps launch mentioned.

That regional safety has been largely centered on China lately, which the Pentagon identifies as its “pacing menace.”

A part of mitigating the menace has been constructing services the place the US might disperse belongings like plane within the occasion of hostilities, together with within the so-called Second Island Chain, places far sufficient away from the Chinese language mainland that Beijing would have problem putting targets there.

The First Island Chain, in such locations as Okinawa in Japan, and US bases within the Philippines, “is neither a survivable nor viable working location as a result of Chinese language navy capabilities in long-range bombers, cruise missiles, and theater ballistic missiles,” US Air Pressure Lt. Col. Grant Georgulis wrote in a 2022 commentary posted on the US Protection Division web site.

“Thus, the USA ought to prioritize Halfway Island, the Marianas, Palau, and the Marshall Islands to enhance an already fortified Guam,” Georgulis wrote.

China has been deeply vital of Washington’s alliance-building efforts within the Pacific, viewing them as an try to halt Beijing’s rise as a navy and financial superpower.

Beijing has lengthy felt boxed in by the US presence within the First and Second Island Chains and beneath chief Xi Jinping has turn out to be rather more assertive in regional waters and confrontational with neighbors reminiscent of Japan and the Philippines.

It has additionally sought to spice up its personal diplomatic and safety ties throughout the Pacific area.

“In a bid to guard its hegemony, the USA is forming blocs globally to focus on particular nations, provoke confrontation and destabilize the world,” China’s state-run Xinhua information company wrote in a current editorial.

“It claims to guard its allies beneath mutual protection treaties, however in actuality, the treaties function a instrument to subordinate them to the superpower and push them to the forefront of conflicts.”

In the meantime, on Yap island within the Federated States of Micronesia, halfway between Guam and Palau, the US Air Pressure in its 2025 price range requested $400 million to increase the runway on the island’s worldwide airport – additionally a former Japanese navy airfield – so it may be utilized by US navy plane.

The US is already performing work on different places within the Second Island Chain, together with reviving North Area on Tinian island within the Northern Marianas, from the place the US bombers that dropped the atomic bombs departed in August 1945.

“America should focus like a laser on the necessity for air superiority within the Pacific area. America should recapitalize islands gained throughout World Conflict II to kind a Second Island Chain of strategic expeditionary factors,” Georgulis wrote.

For Washington, establishing sturdy ties to Pacific island states can also be seen as a strategy to preserve China from gaining footholds within the area. The Biden administration has signed a bilateral protection settlement with Papua New Guinea and reopened an embassy within the Solomon Islands because the starting of 2023.

Palau is a distant archipelago of coral and volcanic islands within the western Pacific and residential to about 20,000 folks.

Since 1994, Palau has been coated by a compact of free affiliation with the USA, making Washington chargeable for its protection wants and permitting Palauans to serve within the US navy.

Palau final 12 months signed a bilateral legislation enforcement settlement with Washington that may let the US Coast Guard implement its legal guidelines in its unique financial zone with out a Palau officer current.

US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro visited Palau’s capital of Koror in March as a part of a Pacific journey that included stops at two key US allies, Japan and South Korea, throughout which he mentioned Washington’s partnership with the island state “straight helps a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

“I can guarantee you that the USA stays dedicated to Palau’s nationwide safety,” Del Toro mentioned throughout a visit that additionally included a go to to the Peleliu island runway work.

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. has been vital of China’s more and more assertive strikes within the area, together with towards Taiwan. Palau is without doubt one of the few remaining nations to diplomatically acknowledge Taiwan over Beijing.

Together with the runway, US Marines are serving to make enhancements to the Peleliu Civic Heart Museum, to accommodate artifacts from the World Conflict II battle.

At an occasion final month marking the touchdown of the Marine plane on Peleliu, island Gov. Emais Roberts thanked the US Protection Division for its efforts there.

“Our small island group has benefitted immensely with the US Marine presence. We worth the good partnership, and we really feel protected and guarded with the help of the best nation on this world.”