On a remote coral island in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau , officials have been inching through foliage littered with explosives to open up a network of sealed caves and search for thousands of bodies believed to have lain inside since the Second World War . 
 
 The grim and painstaking task, undertaken by a team of local and Japanese archaeologists and munitions experts, is aimed at finding the remains of Japanese soldiers trapped inside by United States forces during one of the toughest battles of the war. 
 
 The Japanese used the caves, connected via tunnels and narrow passageways, as a base for their defence of Peleliu, a narrow island only six miles long. More than 10,000 Japanese soldiers died, but the bodies of 2,600 were never found. 
 
 Now, Palau has agreed to open about 200 remaining sealed caves to try to locate the remains ahead of a visit early next month by Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. 
 
 The macabre task is risky and involves clearing a way into the caves through thick forest littered with unexploded ordnance. 
 
 A team of experts took five days last week to clear their way into just one small cave with a 7ft opening. 
 
 Archaeologists found a set of bones which are believed to be human and will be taken back to Japan for testing. 
 
 "They found some bones while they were clearing the entrance of the cave," Bernadette Carreon, a local journalist, told ABC Radio. "They did not use heavy equipment because they have to make it clear of heavy ordnance. When it's clear, the archaeologists can go in and start bone collection." 
 
 
 
 Marines smoke cigarettes, but keep their weapons close in a blasted landscape of Peleliu Island, Palau during WWII 
 
 The attempt to find the bodies has been welcomed in Japan and is part of an effort to end a brutal chapter from the war, in which US marines were pitted against Japanese troops who had set up their defences in the intricate labyrinth of heavily fortified caves and underground bunkers. It is still regarded as one of the harshest conflicts in the history of the marines. 
 
 Unlike previous battles in the Pacific, the Japanese did not focus their defence on using suicide charges to prevent the Americans from establishing a beachhead. 
 
 Instead, the Japanese forces largely allowed the marines to land but staged their defence from inside the caves. 
 
 The Japanese, who had occupied Palau for about 30 years, had spent decades using dynamite and axes to enlarge existing caves on Peleliu and blast out new ones. The caves and their entrances were then heavily camouflaged. 
 
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 The US forces expected the battle in September 1944 to last only four or five days. "It will be a hard-fought quickie," predicted William Rupertus, the US marine commander. It took more than 10 weeks. 
 
 More than 1,600 US soldiers were killed during the battle, which ended with the marines blowing up many of the caves, leaving thousands of the enemy trapped inside. Shortly before the Americans finally seized the small island in late November, Col Kunio Nakagawa, the Japanese commander, atoned for his defeat by committing ritual suicide in his post. 
 
 About 35 Japanese soldiers remained hiding in the caves until April 1947, more than 18 months after the war officially ended. They were the last troops to surrender. 
 
 Keiji Nagai, 93, and Kiyokazu Tsuchida, 95, two of the 35 soldiers who surrendered in 1947, met the Japanese emperor and empress earlier this month to provide an account of the hand-to-hand combat they experienced during the battle. The empress quietly told Mr Nagai: "You went through a lot." 
 
 Authorities began collecting the remains at various locations around the island in 1953, but Japanese authorities say 2,600 soldiers have yet to be found. The bodies are believed to be holed up inside about 200 caves which were deemed dangerous and left sealed to prevent public access. About 450 Japanese soldiers survived the battle and later helped to direct the authorities to the site of graves. 
 
 
 
 The island of Peleliu (Alamy) 
 
 The entire island has become something of a monument to the battle, with unexploded bombs a constant threat to residents and tourists. Following the war, Japan created a peace park which included a Shinto shrine with the inscription "To all countries' unknown soldiers". 
 
 Officials in Palau have worked closely with Japan to try to recover the remaining bodies and return them to the families of the soldiers. Some representatives of the families of the Japanese soldiers have assisted with the search. 
 
 Sachio Kageyama, from a group representing families and fellow soldiers of those who fought on the island, told The Japan Times: "I hope the forthcoming visit by the emperor will pave the way for [further] collection of remains." 
 
 Palau, a remote cluster of islands east of the Philippines with a population of about 21,000, was the scene of heavy fighting during the war. The fierce battle at Peleliu was over an airfield now deemed of questionable strategic value by most historians. 
 
 The search for the bodies has also focused on a long-lost mass grave on the western side of the island, close to where the current cave search is being conducted. 
 
 US military documents indicating the cemetery's location were found two years ago at a naval museum in California. The documents included a map created in January 1945 which says "Japanese cemetery" and points to the centre of the island. A separate report from a construction battalion says that logs were placed on the site to prevent people disturbing the graves. US officials reportedly told Palau in 1994 that a mass grave was located near Nakagawa's grave. 
 
 US experts have also been searching Palau's coral reefs, lagoons and islands for planes that were lost in the conflict. Last year, underwater robots were used to find two warplanes on the ocean floor. ||||| Bodies believed to be of Japanese WWII soldiers discovered in Palau cave sealed off for 70 years 
 
 Updated 
 
 The bodies of six soldiers, believed to be Japanese troops who fought in World War II, have been discovered in a reopened cave in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau. 
 
 The site — one of around 200 sealed caves on the island of Pelileu — was recently opened again for the first time in nearly 70 years. 
 
 The caves were used when US and Japanese forces fought a fierce battle on the island's beaches in September 1944. 
 
 Steve Ballinger, operations director with non-government organisation Cleared Ground Demining, said the bodies of the six soldiers would be repatriated. 
 
 "The cave itself is in an area known as the promontory which is the defining point on the west coast of the island of Pelileu," he told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program. 
 
 "At that location was an anti-tank gun in a heavily fortified concrete bunker and it took a number of days actually to capture this fortified position. 
 
 "It's my understanding that those [bodies] were the crew, perhaps the officer and his men that were manning that gun ... a number of US soldiers died in that vicinity as well." 
 
 Mr Ballinger said other war relics were also found in and around the cave. 
 
 "During the detection and investigation we located hand grenades, large projectiles, small arms ammunition and (an) array of explosive remnants of war," he said. 
 
 The decision to open the caves in Palau comes ahead of an imperial visit next week by Japanese emperor Akihito and empress Michiko. 
 
 The team tasked with making the caves safe for anthropologists to investigate has been operating in Palau to clear remnants of WWII ordnance for six years. 
 
 It is made up of 18 Palauans, two Britons and one person each from South Africa and Australia. 
 
 Mr Ballinger said the team had been concerned about possible booby traps when they first entered the cave. 
 
 "[We] had to check in the floor and the entrance of the cave to allow Japanese and US anthropologists and archaeologists in there," he said. 
 
 "It was very tight, it was a very difficult entrance to the cave, a very harsh environment to work in." 
 
 He said the cave the remains were found has since been resealed. 
 
 "A lot of field caves will contain considerable quantities of human remains and as such you could designate them as graves and wouldn't be appropriate to use as tourist attractions," he said. 
 
 An estimated 10,000 Japanese soldiers died during the fighting in the country, and the remains of some 2,600 troops have never been found. 
 
 Topics: world-war-2, history, unrest-conflict-and-war, archaeology, palau, pacific, japan, united-states 
 
 First posted ||||| Tokyo (CNN) As Japan prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II , one of its largest corporations has given a long-awaited apology for wartime atrocities. 
 
 At a ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday, a representative for Mitsubishi Materials Corporation apologized for using captured American soldiers as slave laborers. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials is the first private corporation to express such remorse, although the Japanese government has made repeated apologies. 
 
 The solemn act of contrition comes far too late for most victims. Mitsubishi says it was only able to locate two living survivors. But former prisoner of war James Murphy warmly accepted the apology, which comes just weeks before the August 15th anniversary of Japan's 1945 surrender. 
 
 Murphy, a 94-year-old American, was in his early 20s when he became a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II. He said he was "elated" by the apology, which he had waited to hear in the seven decades since he was freed. 
 
 Murphy says he survived horrific conditions as a forced laborer for Mitsubishi Materials' predecessor Mitsubishi Mining Co., which supplied materials used to manufacture, among other things, Mitsubishi's feared Zero fighter aircraft used by the Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. 
 
 38 photos: World War II in pictures German troops march through occupied Warsaw, Poland, after invading the nation on September 1, 1939, and igniting World War II. Hide Caption 1 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures German Chancellor Adolf Hitler speaks to Nazi party officials in 1939, the year of the German blitzkrieg into Poland. Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium soon fell under German control. When France came under occupation less than a year later, Britain was the only remaining Western European nation fighting the Third Reich, and the United States had not yet entered the war. Hide Caption 2 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures In Asia, Japanese troops occupy a strategic point on Chusan Island on July 14,1939, during the Sino-Japanese War. Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in 1940, formally allying with Germany and Italy, and by 1942 most of the Asian Pacific Rim had come under its domination. Hide Caption 3 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures German soldiers on the Esplanade du Trocadero view the Eiffel Tower. In June 1940, German troops marched into Paris, forcing France to capitulate and establish the pro-Axis Vichy French government. Hide Caption 4 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures British Hawker Hurricanes fly in formation during the Battle of Britain in 1940. The planes were a first line of defense against German bombers attacking England. The battle, fought between July 10 and October 31, 1940, was the first major battle to be won in the air. The Royal Air Force's victory thwarted Hitler's plans for invading Britain. Hide Caption 5 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Smoke rises behind Tower Bridge during the first mass daylight bombing of London on September 7, 1940. Hide Caption 6 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, left, with Hitler, center, and other leading Nazis, visits Germany during the war. Italy and Germany formed an alliance before the outbreak of war, but Italy remained a non-belligerent until June 10, 1940, when it declared war on Britain and France. Fighting spread to Greece and North Africa. Hide Caption 7 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures German tanks and infantry attack Soviet positions on the Eastern Front. On June 22, 1941, Germany broke its Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union, launching the bloodiest theater of the war. Though the estimates vary greatly, Russia suffered the most war casualties of any nation in World War II -- as many as 13.8 million military deaths. Estimates of civilian deaths from military action, crimes against humanity, starvation and disease are as high as 9 million. Hide Caption 8 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures A view of U.S. ships in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. The USS West Virginia and USS Tennessee are in the foreground. The attack destroyed more than half the fleet of aircraft and damaged or destroyed eight battleships. Japan also attacked Clark and Iba airfields in the Philippines, destroying more than half the U.S. Army's aircraft there. Hide Caption 9 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941. Italy and Germany immediately declared war on the United States, and on December 11, Roosevelt signed the U.S. declarations of war against those nations. Hide Caption 10 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures British prisoners of war leave Hong Kong for a Japanese prison camp in December 1941. Hide Caption 11 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Anti-aircraft fire glows over Algiers during a night raid on November 23, 1942. In 1942, the Allies stopped the Axis advance in North Africa and the Soviet Union. Hide Caption 12 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Black smoke rises from demolished buildings after Japanese air forces attacked the U.S. Navy base on Midway Atoll during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The four-day battle became a major victory for the U.S. Navy, which sunk four Japanese aircraft carriers, and it marked a turning point in the war in the Pacific. Hide Caption 13 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Balloon operators from Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force, or WAAF, report for inspection in a hangar used to store balloons, at a facility in the UK. During World War II, women played a significant role in the war effort. They took jobs in "defense plants and volunteered for war-related organizations, in addition to managing their households," according to the World War II museum in New Orleans. Hide Caption 14 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures British troops land near Algiers, Algeria, during Operation Torch in November 1942. Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of Vichy-held French North Africa, and marked the first major action by the Western allies against the German army. Hide Caption 15 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Soviet soldiers advance against the German army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle for the city on the Volga River (present-day Volgograd) was a major defeat for Germany and a turning point in the war. The battle lasted more than five months, ending in February 1943, at the cost of at least 160,000 German soldiers killed or captured. However, even conservative estimates of Russian casualties are much higher. Hide Caption 16 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures German prisoners captured at the beachhead of Anzio, Italy, leave a landing craft on their way to a prison camp in 1944. The amphibious landing and ensuing battle helped Allied forces break a months-long stalemate south of Rome and ultimately defeat the Germans in Italy. Hide Caption 17 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures French refugees live in a quarry near Fleury sur Orne. During the bombing in that area, 20,000 refugees lived in the quarries. Hide Caption 18 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures U.S. troops assault Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. On D-Day, Allied forces landed on five beaches -- Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword -- taking the first step in establishing the Western Front in Europe. The landing included more than 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes and 150,000 soldiers. More than 35,000 Allied troops were killed during the Normandy Campaign, which lasted till the end of August 1944. Hide Caption 19 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures A crowd gathers to cheer Gen. Charles de Gaulle at the Place de la Concorde on August 26, 1944, a day after the liberation of Paris. Hide Caption 20 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Soldiers of an infantry division move into the mist over a snow-covered field near Krinkelter, Belgium, on December 20, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, a surprise German counter-offensive against Allied forces as they closed in on German soil from the west. It resulted in more combined U.S. losses (nearly 90,000 killed, wounded or captured) than any battle of the war. Hide Caption 21 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raise the American flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on February 23, 1945. Strategically located only 660 miles from Tokyo, the Pacific island was essential to launching land-based bombers against Japan. It was the bloodiest battle in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps, which suffered more than 27,000 casualties. Of some 18,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island, 216 survived. Hide Caption 22 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures German prisoners captured at Friedrichsfeld march through a town in Germany after the crossing of the Rhine River by the U.S. 9th Army on March 26, 1945. Hide Caption 23 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures From left, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Russian Premier Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference on February 1945. Hide Caption 24 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Prisoners line block 61 of Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945. The construction of Buchenwald started July 15, 1937, and the camp was liberated by U.S. Gen. George Patton's troops on April 11, 1945. Between 239,000 and 250,000 people were imprisoned in the camp. About 56,000 died, including 11,000 Jews. Hide Caption 25 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures President Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession goes down Connecticut Avenue on its way to the White House. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, in Warm Springs, Georgia, just weeks before Germany's surrender. Hide Caption 26 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Harry S. Truman takes the oath of office on April 12, 1945, as he becomes the 33rd president of the United States. Standing beside him are his wife, Bess, and daughter Margaret. Hide Caption 27 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures The bodies of Benito Mussolini, left, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, second from left, hang from the roof of a gasoline station after they were shot by anti-Fascist forces while attempting to escape to Switzerland on April 28, 1945. Hide Caption 28 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Russian soldiers wave their flag, made from tablecloths, over the ruins of the Reichstag in Berlin on April 30, 1945. That day, as the Soviets were within blocks of his bunker at the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Hide Caption 29 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses the celebrating crowds from the balcony of the Ministry of Health in Whitehall, London, on V-E Day, May 8, 1945. The war in Europe was officially over. Hide Caption 30 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Soldiers rush an injured U.S. Marine from a battlefield during the Battle of Okinawa in June 1945. The battle, the bloodiest of the war in the Pacific, raged for nearly three months and heightened U.S. concerns for the enormous casualties that could be anticipated in the planned invasion of Japan's main islands. Hide Caption 31 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures A photograph on display at the Bradbury Science Museum shows the first instant of the first atomic bomb test, on July 16, 1945, at 5:29 a.m. at Trinity Site in New Mexico. The Potsdam Declaration, announced 10 days later, called for Japan's unconditional surrender, threatening "prompt and utter destruction." It did not, however, specifically mention the bomb. Hide Caption 32 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., center, stands with the ground crew of the B-29 bomber "Enola Gay," which Tibbets piloted on August 6, 1945. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, that day killed an estimated 130,000 people. Hide Caption 33 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Hide Caption 34 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures A patient suffering severe radiation burns lies in the Hiroshima Red Cross hospital in August 1945. Many of those who survived the initial blast on August 6 died of severe radiation-related injuries and illnesses. Hide Caption 35 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures A dense column of smoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over Nagasaki, the result of an atomic bomb dropped on August 9, 1945. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 were killed in the Nagasaki blast. Six days later, a little after noon local time on August 15, Emperor Hirohito's announcement that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast on radio. Japan had surrendered. Hide Caption 36 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures A jubilant American sailor kisses a nurse in New York's Times Square on August 14, 1945, as he celebrates the news that Japan has surrendered. (Because of the time difference between the two nations, the surrender occurred August 15 in Japan). Hide Caption 37 of 38 38 photos: World War II in pictures Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, officially bringing World War II to an end. Overseeing the surrender is U.S. Gen. Douglas McArthur (right, back to camera). Hide Caption 38 of 38 
 
 Mitsubishi has admitted to holding nearly 900 American prisoners-of-war when allied forces liberated its labor camps in 1945 during the final days of the war. 
 
 Today we apologize remorsefully for the tragic events in our past, and expressed our profound determination to work toward a better future. Hikaru Kimura 
 
 Twenty-seven Americans died in the camps and others complained of lifelong health problems from grueling conditions, frequent beatings, poor sanitation, and lack of food and medical care. 
 
 Mitsubishi Materials lists among its corporate philosophies as being a company "for people, society and the Earth." 
 
 "In keeping with the spirit of our company's mission statement, today we apologize remorsefully for the tragic events in our past, and expressed our profound determination to work toward a better future," said Hikaru Kimura, a senior executive officer of Mitsubishi Materials. 
 
 Kimura also gave a customary deep bow of remorse to Murphy, who appeared visibly moved. 
 
 World War II Fast Facts 
 
 "I've listened very carefully to Mr. Kimura's statement of apology and found it very, very sincere, humble and revealing, and this happens to be the first time that we've heard those words and they really touch you at the heart," Murphy said. 
 
 12,000 Americans kept in forced labor 
 
 The high-profile and long-awaited apology happened during a news conference at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. 
 
 Public relations director Avra Shaprio told CNN the Wiesenthal Center's associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, is planning a late-July visit to the sites of former Japanese mines. He claimed a wartime labor shortage prompted the Japanese government and private companies to put 12,000 Americans into forced labor, of whom more than 1,100 died. 
 
 The American POWs worked alongside British, Chinese, Korean and Filipino prisoners. 
 
 Mitsubishi has not offered financial compensation for forced laborers, but the company has faced lawsuits in South Korea and China. 
 
 The 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, the peace treaty that officially ended World War II, did not allow American POWs to file lawsuits seeking compensation. 
 
 "Here we are in the 21st century. It's time for Japan to help its victims turn the page on the past. And in order to do that, Japan must squarely face its history," said Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian Studies at Japan's Temple University and author of Nationalism in Asia Since 1945. 
 
 Kingston called the experience of POWs in Japan "a horrific nightmare" and said Mitsubishi's apology should have happened "decades ago." 
 
 "This is an issue that hasn't gone away for Japan," he added. 
 
 Japan expands military reach 
 
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 Mitsubishi's move comes as the Japanese government attempts to move past the nation's war crimes and expand the role of its military for the first time since the war. 
 
 Last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed a controversial security bill through Japan's lower house of Parliament, which gives the army and navy limited powers to fight abroad under certain conditions. The bill now moves to the upper house, where it is also expected to pass. 
 
 Thousands of protestors stood outside the parliament building in Tokyo to protest the legislation, deemed a "war bill" by critics fearful of a return to the days of Imperial Japanese aggression. 
 
 Abe's approval rating has plunged below 40%, the lowest since he was elected in 2012.
– The island nation of Palau is preparing for a visit from Japan's Emperor Akihito next week with an unusual and grim task: It's investigating long-sealed caves on the island of Peleliu to look for the remains of Japanese soldiers from World War II. The remains of six soldiers have been discovered so far, but that's just the start. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports they were found in one of about 200 sealed caves on Peleliu. An estimated 10,000 Japanese men were killed in a weeks-long battle with US troops during the war, and the bodies of 2,600 of them were never found. The Japanese used a network of caves and tunnels during the 1944 fighting, recounts the Telegraph, and largely "staged their defense" from within the caves. About 1,600 American troops were killed, but the US military blew up many of the caves (essentially sealing the Japanese within) and eventually gained control. The six newly found bodies were found in the vicinity of an anti-tank gun, and "it's my understanding that those [bodies] were the crew, perhaps the officer and his men that were manning that gun," says one of the search officials. "A number of US soldiers died in that vicinity as well." The task is painstaking because searchers need to guard against booby traps or the detonation of old munitions. An interesting side note from the Telegraph: Some 35 Japanese soldiers who had been hiding in the caves surrendered in April 1947—more than a year after the war's end. (In other WWII news, Anne Frank likely died earlier than thought.)