The Ghosts of Peleliu Island: Writing Narrative Non-Fiction as a Military Historian of the Pacific War

On Monday, January 26, the Concepts in Global History Seminar, the Clements Center for National Security, the Department of History, the Frank Denius Normandy Scholar Program on WWIl, and the Institute for Historical Studies will host Dr. Bruno Cabanes, Donald G. & Mary A. Dunn Chair in Modern Military History at The Ohio State University, for “The Ghosts of Peleliu Island: Writing Narrative Non-Fiction as a Military Historian of the Pacific War.” Join us from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm in Garrison Hall 4.100 or on Zoom.

Event will take place in a hybrid format, both in-person and virtually:

– In-person RSVP: cmeador@austin.utexas.edu
Venue: Garrison Hall 4.100. Light lunch served.

– Virtual attendance via Zoom: Please register to receive the access link at–
https://utexas.zoom.us/meeting/register/g3NbjN7-QrKSSdOnzQKGJw

The Institute for Historical Studies is committed to sustainable practices and minimizing waste. To that end, we ask that you inform us in your RSVP if you will not require lunch.  In addition, we have eliminated all bottled water and encourage attendees to bring their own reusable mugs for coffee/tea and reusable canteens to fill at our water containers.

Bruno Cabanes is the Donald G. And Mary A. Dunn Chair in Modern Military History at the Ohio State University after teaching for nine years at Yale University. He studied history at the Ecole normale supérieure, in Paris, and received his PhD, with distinction, from the Université Paris I- Panthéon Sorbonne, and his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Bruno Cabanes’s monograph The Ghosts of Peleliu Island (Les fantômes de l’île de Peleliu. Récit, Editions du Seuil, Paris, August 2025) examines the questions of memory and identity on Peleliu Island, in Micronesia. Retracing the war experience of Eugene B. Sledge, a young Marine who fought on the island in the fall of 1944, Cabanes undertook several research trips to Palau between 2017 and 2023. In his book, Professor Cabanes engages in a temporal excavation, exploring the island’s jungle and intricate cave networks, and reflecting on the traces, vestiges and memories of a ten-week battle. The island’s history unfolds as a palimpsest, layered with voyages of exploration, ethnographic investigations, and successive waves of Spanish, German and Japanese colonizations. Combining travel impressions, American, Japanese and Palauan personal testimonies, archival materials, and field research, his book offers a vivid and poetic rendering of Peleliu and reveals the island in all its historical and emotional complexity. 

With introduction and moderation by:
Judith G. Coffin
Oliver H. Radkey Regents Professor in History, and Professor of History
University of Texas at Austin