Connection to the Past
by Rex SimmonsI think sometimes my family is somewhat dismayed and confused with my interest in World War II. I can often be found watching shows on the History Channel or the Military Channel pertaining to WWII, especially if it involves the war in the Pacific. Had I not spent 3 years on Kwaj as a young boy, I doubt that I’d be so interested.
Unless you go out of your way to ignore it, spending any time on Kwaj as a resident will introduce you to a small part of history where that tiny island played a role in the Pacific campaign of WWII. There are the obvious memorials, but also remnants of that conflict that fascinated me as a kid who had never been exposed to such poignant, physical reminders of a conflict that played out right on the soil where I found myself 30 years later. Thirty years sounded like a long time back then, but realizing that it’s been more than 30 years since I left Kwaj for the last time drives home that the end of the war really wasn’t that long before we began our own short-lived occupation of Kwaj.
As an impressionable young person, I was drawn to the old relics that were freely discoverable, especially the old Japanese bunker that still exists even today on the southwestern end of the island near the runway. Back then we could go inside, although I think it has since been closed off to people for safety reasons. I also found the upside-down wreck of the Prinz Eugen in the lagoon just northwest of Kwaj to be particularly fascinating, albeit a bit creepy with its stern, rudder and a single remaining propeller piercing the water’s surface and towering above our small boat when the tide was low. It was a post-war wreck, but the ship itself participated in the war on the German side and, as far as I was concerned, it was all part of the same time period. Likewise, I attributed to the war the rusting hulks of a bulldozer, crane, and other assorted oddities that were abandoned on the beach near the reef on the southwestern side of Kwaj, although I’m fairly sure that they were left there some years later. I wonder sometimes if anyone finally got rid of them, if they are still there, or if they slowly rusted into powder. My interest grew as I discovered, explored, and photographed these old leftovers and I even found myself reading WWII fiction. I recall several books written by Robb White that were available through the school library, such as “Flight Deck.” I couldn’t get enough of it.
To this day I’ll watch just about any movie or program with ties to WWII, and I’ve even recorded a 30-minute historical episode on the History Channel that is entirely devoted to the battle for Kwaj. One of my favorite movies is still “Midway,” and although it may seem a bit cheesy and one-sided by today’s standards, I still enjoy watching it because it reminds me so much of those Kwaj days. I first saw that movie at the Rich and it even includes a couple of references to Kwaj itself, to which everyone in the audience cheered when it came up. My visits to Pearl Harbor while on vacation from Kwaj, and again with my wife and kids in 2004 were both memorable as well as reverent. As a college student I found a detailed account of Operation Flintlock (the battle for the Marshall Islands) in the massive research library at Auburn, and I’ve read other accounts of Pacific engagements such as the struggle for Guadalcanal and the gut-wrenching trial of the USS Indianapolis, mentioned prominently in the movie “Jaws” (another favorite of mine that was released in the mid-70s while we were Kwaj residents, although I actually saw it in Huntsville during a summer vacation back home).
I suppose I’ll always have a certain fascination and respect for the sacrifices and grit demonstrated during WWII, and it will always remind me of my days on Kwaj when the echoes of that epic conflict rang true to a young boy who found himself, for a brief time, surrounded by the lingering remnants of such a great and terrible struggle.