On September 22, 1944, American Marine Corps soldiers stood over the bodies of two Japanese soldiers and a machine gunner killed in the Battle of Peleliu, holding Japanese swords they had looted from the Japanese soldiers.

 　During the Pacific War, American marines killed two Japanese soldiers on Peleliu Island in the Palau Islands immediately after landing on Peleliu Island on September 15th 1944. Later, on September 22, 1944, the American Marine Corps member stood over the bodies of the two Japanese soldiers who had been killed and the machine gunner, holding the Japanese sword he had looted from the Japanese soldiers. The Marine's pockets bulged with the loot he had taken from the Japanese soldiers. The two Japanese soldiers behind him committed suicide by holding grenades to their chests and detonating them. A Japanese Zero fighter plane was destroyed behind them on the right.

　　On September 15th 1944, the 1st Marine Division landed on the western coast of Peleliu Island. In the weeks that followed, Peleliu Island was littered with the debris of war as the fighting reached terrifying intensity. The jungle area was littered with live grenades, mortar shells, artillery shells and small arms ammunition. The 1st Marine Division, which landed on the southwestern coast of Peleliu, began fighting on September 15th. The 1st Marines landed on White Beach, a crescent-shaped sandy beach approximately 594 meters long. At the northernmost point of the area, there was a natural rock that jutted out about 13.7 meters from the shoreline, and the Japanese army had hidden machine guns and automatic guns in a series of concrete bomb shelters, forcing the 1st Marine Regiment to fight hard on the first day of the battle.

　　After the fall of Saipan about three months earlier, the Japanese army realized that meaningless “banzai” charges were unproductive and useless. The Japanese forces' battle on Peleliu Island became a war of attrition that prolonged the fighting and kept the American forces tied up for as long as possible. Long-term defensive battles also continued on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, but the strategy was first implemented in the battle on Peleliu Island. It ended on November 27, 1944, when all the Japanese soldiers in the command post committed suicide.