# The "Ulithi" Encyclopedia/Chapter 1

Chapter One: The Rock
Chapter One: Its birth, its history, and its wars…
"Our Rock" started several million years ago. It's difficult to say when; this Pacific has been around for over five-hundred million years—somewhere on our side of that figure, work was started on Ulithi. The millions of years and the billions of animals which developed it are responsible for it. We had nothing to do with it except a few quonset huts and some telephone lines. Otherwise, it was generally planned for us before we came.
Fundamentally, there was a long underwater mountain range which extended east and west near the equator. There were several volcanic craters near the surface of the ocean which provided a foundation for the sea-wall around our lagoon, In a sense, this was the beginning.
There is a chemical to be found in water known as calcium carbonate, or lime. There is quite a lot more lime in salt water than in "fresh" water. There is so much of it in an animal's body, or in our bodies for that matter, that without it there would be no bones, no teeth, no tissues—generally, no life. Using innumerable submicroscopic animals, the sea is able to convert calcium into a solid material. These animals are called polyps, and from their skeletons we get that which we call coral. Connected together they carry on their work projects year after year; they build on the clumped skeletons of their ancestors.
If the polyps are the carpenters, the algae do the painting, round off the edges, and prepare the finishing touches, The colorations which we find beyond the water line are made by these green algae, which live inside the polyp. They add the colorful touch, and then complete their task ​by filling in the cracks and crevices and converting the mass into solid limestone. Polyps are a temperamental, warm natured sort, and refuse to produce in waters colder than 68°F. Hence why you're so near the equator. If you swim off Ulithi, you'll notice on the bottom that the sea colonies are still growing and forming more island material.
In all, there are thirty land areas which comprise the above-surface topography of Ulithi. In appearence, it looks something like a mushroom with a broken stem or a disheveled necklace. It is east of Yap, southwest of Guam, and north of the Palaus, and 19½ miles long and 9½ miles wide at the northern and broadest part. No matter how small it may seem, it's the largest atoll in the Carolines group.
There are four large islands, and a number of submerged reefs which project only a few inches above the water line. Asor, Mogmog, Sorlen, and Fassarai are the major land masses; Lossau, Mangejang, and Song are smaller but habitable. Despite its proximity, the island of Falalop is not actually a part of the atoll, but attached to a separate reef. It will be considered as a part of Ulithi in discussions here, however, forgiving its singular isolation. The lagoon enclosed within the atoll is approximately 85 square miles of the best anchorage in the Pacific, capable of holding a thousand ships. The entrance to the lagoon is to the leeward, a common occurance for atolls, since the coral-building animals live on the windward sides, where the sea breeze pushes their food to them.
The history of Ulithi is limited. The evidence of archaeology indicates that the Western Carolines were initially ​peopled by the same waves of migrations from Indonesia that settled other parts of Micronesia, the Marianas, the Marshalls, and the Gilberts. After this original occupation, the various Micronesian people appear to have undergone a normal process of cultural evolution and differentiation, producing the slight regional differences which we observe today. Impressive archaeological remains on Palau, roads, graves, and terraces at Yap, which have led to the speculation of a former period of higher civilization, are now believed to have been produced by the recent ancestors of the present population.
The islands were "discovered" by a Portuguese mariner, Diego da Rocha, in 1526. Yap was reputedly discovered in the same year by da Rocha. Thus Ulithi was touched some five years before Magellan made his discoveries in the Marianas. Villalobos sighted Ulithi in 1543. But during the next two centuries, only Spanish missionaries found their way to the atoll.
In 1731, an attempt to Christianize and colonize Ulithi was made by Spaniards, but this resulted in the missionaries being driven completely off the islands. Two Jesuit fathers had established a small mission on Falalop alongside a lay colony; when one of the priests left Falalop to journey to the Marianas for provisions, he returned to discover his colleague slain, the lay colony massacred.
Other, later visitors, who perhaps met a more cordial reception, were Duperrey, the French explorer; a Spaniard, Don Luis de Torres, and the scientist, Lutke.
In 1868, the Spaniards gave the Caroline islands their present name, in honor of their king, Charles II, the Latin ​equivalent of Charles being Carolus, hence Caroline. The other name for Ulithi, and one frequently found on maps, is MacKenzie, the name of an early British explorer. Ulithi is a native name, and its etymology is known today but to a few octogenerians who recall the legend surrounding it. Ulithi as a word dates back to an early native practice of the dead. Literally it means, "Put your head toward the setting sun." Bury the dead with heads pointing westward.
When Jimmy Durante took part in WVTY's dedicatory program from Hollywood, he asked: "Ulitti! What kind of a name is dat? U-litti! Yeah, now I remember. Dat's da home of Umbriago, da great U-litti genius!" Perhaps the great Schnozzola could have out-double-talked himself if he had known some of Ulithi's other names—Mogmog, Mogumogu, Mokomok, Ouluthy, Uluti, and Urushi.
In the 19th century, the rise of the whaling industry ranging from Ulithi to the Bonin islands, brought the natives into an unhappy contact with white men. The seamen brought in guns and whisky, and bartered for food, water, and mother-of-pearl. But the worst of the white man's presents was disease—venereal and small pox, mumps, measels, and whooping cough, which were mild to Europeans but catastrophic for the natives because they had no resistance to them. Almost two-thirds of the native population of the Carolines died during the nineteenth century from imported disease.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, first Germany and then England contested Spain's claim to the Carolines. The matter was referred to the Pope, who ruled in favor of Spain, but who stipulated that the islands should ​be opened to commerce and trade. In 1899, following the Spanish-American war, Germany purchased the Carolines from Spain and attempted to develop the copra industry.
All the while, Japan had an eye covetously watching the Carolines. Her opportunity to seize them was during the first World War when, fighting against Germany, she sent a naval squadron to occupy them. After the treaty of Versailles, Japan was given a mandate over the islands.
Although Japan was given no right to fortify the islands she nevertheless proceeded to do so, She refused to allow ships of other nations to visit ports in the islands and discouraged travel here by non-Japanese.
In the tense days prior to World War II, Japan moved down into the Carolines with serious intention: hurriedly she built a powerful navel base at Truk; Ponape, Kusaie, and Yap were fortified with strongly-entrenched Jap troops; at Ulithi, a Japanese radio and weather station was built, with Ulithi's broad lagoon serving as an emergency naval and seaplane base.
During World War II, Ulithi was first attacked by United States forces on March 30 and April 1, 1944, by a task fleet of carrier planes. For three months it rested from American strikes; on July 24–27, another fleet of carrier planes bombed it. The third strike was 5, 6, 7 September. This was the last "routine" strike. Next came invasion.
Among the 'now it can be told' stories is the taking of Ulithi without opposition when the Japanese abandoned it as worthless. When American forces moved into the Marianas and Peleliu, the Japs conscripted all able-bodied Ulithians ​and withdrew with them to Yap. As Larry Tighe, American Broadcasting Company correspondent on Guam reported recently: "The Japs were convinced that none of the islands could support an airfield…in fact, they were sold on the idea that Ulithi was worthless…so we moved in without a struggle. This was the secret Pacific base you occasionally heard discussed."
On September 20 and 21, 1944, units of the 81st "Wildcat" division went ashore on Ulithi. The landing was unopposed; the Japs had fled.
Days later, small contingents of the amphibious fleet were dispatched east to the island of Fais, where the Japanese had maintained phosphate mines, and south by southwest to Ngulu, where a handful of Japs operated a radio station beside a relatively untouched primitive society. Ulithi, Fais, and Ngulu were the only islands in the Carolines captured by allied forces; all others, including mighty Truk, were by-passed.
Ulithi became known unofficially throughout the Pacific as Admiral Nimitz' "secret weapon." As Larry Tighe said, "The Seabees built an airfield right where the Japs said it was impossible…even if it does have a dog-leg at one end, and gives one the fidgets every time he takes off or lands on it…In the months of preparation for the Iwo Jima and Okinawa operations, Ulithi became the hub of almost all naval operations in the Pacific…"
The chagrined Japs realized their mistake, too late, and sent out nuisance bombers from Yap…two Kamikazi raiders damaged the aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Randolph; another mistook an island for a ship and found it unsinkable. Once a suicide sub broke through the submarine net and sank one tanker. After that, Ulithi was left to carry on its part in providing a mighty atoll where the fleet could replenish ​its supplies, rest its tired crews, and repair minor damages.
Separate islands of the atoll became key points in operation—: Falalop, the home of MAG 45, a marine air wing which protected the fleet in Ulithi lagoon, and carried out neutralization raids against nearby Japanese strongholds; Asor was designated as ATCOM—Atoll Commander, and served as headquarters for Commodore Oliver Kessing, who was relieved by Captain J. L. Wyatt, and Chief Staff Officer J. C. Webb. Sorlen became the base of the world's largest "water taxi" service, with 400 small boats providing ferry service for the men of the fleet. It was Mogmog which became the recreation island, where the fleet brought its sea-weary crews to relax, drink beer, participate in athletics, and sun themselves on a tropical beach. A native hut on Mogmog was redecorated to serve as a bar, Flag Bar, and here a guest roster includes the familiar names of admirals of the fleet…among them, the insertion: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Christmas Day, 1944. The Commander-in Chief of the Pacific fleet spent Christmas, '44, with the men of the fleet on tiny Mogmog island.
Behind the story of Ulithi's importance in the successful prosecution of the war in the Pacific lies a simple story of a gentle people who lived in a coral garden which wasn't always a "grocery store, a rest camp, and an arsenal." This is their story.
For their convenience and ours, the natives live on a mile-and-a~half long island at the southern tip of the atoll, Fassarai. There, since the American occupation, they have lived with a minimum of disturbance from outsiders; they live their normal routine of life free from curiosity seekers and souvenier hunters, watched over with the best care which navy medics and civil affairs administrators can ​provide. Perhaps, with the augmented conveniences of western civilization brought by their service friends, they are living more comfortably than ever before, with those added features of civilization such as custom-brand cigarettes, perfumed soap, American movies and radio, and an expanding knowledge of the English language.