The paradise island haunted by one of the bloodiest battles of World War II | CNN

EDITOR’S NOTE: CNN Films presents “Why We Dream,” which follows a group of centenarian WWII veterans as they make a pilgrimage to Normandy, France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Watch it now on the CNN app. The island is lush, myriad shades of green made deeper by the effects of the morning’s rainfall. Just offshore, snorkelers float over beds of unbleached corals. Walking off the small wooden boat dock, visitors pass clumps of ficus trees and ankle-deep ferns, while cairns of gray stones mark hiking trails. And then, in the middle of an empty field, stands an amphibious Japanese military tank with garlands of green plants sprouting between its rusted wheels. The juxtaposition is jarring. But that’s why tourists have come from as far away as the United States, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan today — for an up-close look at the tropical island where one of the bloodiest and least remembered battles of World War II’s Pacific theater took place. When American troops arrived on the remote Pacific island of Peleliu in September 1944, their job was simple: to attack the island and destroy the Japanese air base there. After a few days’ bombardment, soldiers set