My name is Emmett Baker. I have created this web site from personal notes and pertinent locations on the World Wide Web. I was stationed on the Islet of Sorlen, Ulithi Atoll, from January until October of 1945. I was a Signalman (USNR). I hope this site will be of interest to those thousands of military personnel who were stationed at, or passed through, Ulithi Atoll during WWII. Please feel free to e-mail me with your comments and/or suggestions.

Ulithi (or Urushi, or Mackenzie Island) is a coral atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia, in the western Pacific Ocean (Western Caroline Islands). Its islets have a total land area of 1.75 sq mi (4.5 sq km). Its huge lagoon is the world's fourth largest (209 sq. miles).
It was probably sighted by the Portuguese in 1526 and was undisturbed by Europeans until visited by a British naval vessel in 1791. It was the site of a Japanese seaplane base during World War II. It was occupied by U.S. forces in September 1944, and served as a large U.S. naval base for the rest of the war. Its inhabitants are probably partly Polynesian and speak a distinctive dialect. Mokomok is the chief village. Population: (1980) 710.

HOW ULITHI WAS FORMED

There were once, a very long time ago, some sisters in Yap. One in particular loved eating turtle, but her sisters would only give her the bad parts, like the fins. So she decided she was going to find a place where she could eat all the turtle she wanted. She took a coconut cup filled with sand, said some magic, then threw some sand ahead of her, which formed a strip of land that she could walk on. She did this until she came to a spot where there were lots of turtles. By this process, she formed the islands of Ulithi. She was happy at this new place because she could eat all the turtle she wanted, and not just the bad parts. After awhile her islet became overrun with ants and spiders, so she lit a fire and used the smoke as a bridge to go to another islet. Here too she found it overrun with ants and spiders, so again she lit another fire and walked over the bridge of smoke to the islet of Mog Mog where she settled. There is a platform there that was her platform. It is the only place in Ulithi where turtles may be killed.

(This story was told to Dr. Felicia R. Beardsley by Philip Nery). Photo of Mog Mog courtesy of the Univ. of Guam. "Photograph of Philip Nery by RDK Herman, Pacific Worlds. Used with permission"

A TRAGIC DEATH AT ULITHI

One of the most lamented deaths occurring on Ulithi was that of the Princess Kalara, daughter of King Ueg. During the initial American landings on the atoll in September 1944, it was believed that Japanese pockets of resistance remained in the then thick undergrowth and foliage on the islands of Mogmog and Asor. The natives were forewarned to retire to the beaches while American planes strafed the interior. For some reason, two of the natives neglected to heed the warnings....they were both struck by gunfire from the strafing planes. One was Kalara, the young and beloved princess of Ulithi. She was taken aboard a hospital ship in the lagoon, but medical care was ineffective; she died two days later. Marking one the the more regrettable phases of war's touching the innocent, Kalara was buried on MogMog with services conducted by a navy chaplain. At the native cemetery on that island, one may observe the coral memorial, topped by a simple white cross bearing the inscription:
"Princess Kalara, Christiano, September, 1944"

*This article is from THE ULITHI ENCYCLOPEDIA, published by WVTY, The Armed Forces Radio Station, Ulithi, Western Carolines. (If anyone has any information about WVTY while it was at Uilithi please contact me). (photo of MogMog cemetery by Christophe Descantes)

Somewhere on a Western Atoll where the sun is like a curse,
And each long day is followed by another slightly worse,
Where the coral dust blows thicker than the desert's shifting sands,
And the white men dream of finer, cooler, cleaner, greener lands.

Somewhere in the West Pacific, where a woman's never seen,
Where the sky is never cloudy and the grass is never green,
Where the gooney birds scream nightly, robbing man of blessed sleep,
Where there isn't any whiskey, just two cans of beer a week.

Somewhere in the blue Pacific, where the mail is always late,
Where Christmas cards in April are considered up to date,
Where we always sign the payroll and never draw a cent,
Where we never miss the money, ' cause there's no place to get it spent.

Somewhere in a Western ocean, where the gooneys moan and cry,
And the lumbering Deep-sea turtles come up on the beach to die,
Oh, take me back to___________ the place I love so well,
For this God-forsaken island is awful close to hell......

(Written in 1944 by unknown author at Ulithi)