The Pacific theatre of World War 2 left many traces behind. The
shipwrecks of
Chuuk Lagoon are probably the most famous, but they're hardly the primary reminders of former military action present in the day-to-day lives of many Micronesians.
Besides the many large-scale remains of the war, such as
abandoned airfields Quonset huts, and
abandoned bunkers, many Micronesians live with recycled WW2 materials of a smaller kind.
Marsden Matting is one of the most commonly seen pieces of WW2 materiel, and Marsden airstrips still exist. The materials have also found new life as
walkways,
construction materials, and, most often, as
fencing (2).
In the Marshall islands, Japanese
military rice cookers have been turned into water catchments, and
127 mm ammunition boxes have been repurposed as water catchments, storage lockers, and
copra driers.
The scavenging of airplane parts is perhaps the zenith of Pacific war recycling.
B-24s, in particular, presented a
wealth of parts that found new peacetime purposes, such oxygen cylinders, propellors, and fuselage pieces. Even after the war, the US military was leaving behind items that the local people found useful:
drop tanks from
F-86s.
For even more photos and text about Micronesian military recycling, check out
this PDF (note: 7 MB).
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posted by hattifattener at 12:56 PM on October 10