The “thousand-yard stare” (sometimes referred to as the “two-thousand-yard stare”) is a term describing the distant, focused daze of combat participants who have experienced severe trauma or shell shock. It was popularized and ideologized by a 1944 painting titled The Two Thousand Yard Stare by war artist Tom Lea, who embedded with U.S. Marines during the Battle of Peleliu in World War II.
The battle, fought from September to November 1944 on the small Pacific island of Peleliu (part of modern-day Palau), was one of the bloodiest of the war, with U.S. forces suffering over 10,000 casualties (including nearly 2,000 killed) while facing fanatical Japanese resistance in brutal heat, caves, and coral ridges.
Lea’s painting depicts an anonymous Marine with hollow eyes, symbolizing the psychological devastation of the fight—Lea himself described the subject as a man who had “endured more than men should” after 31 months of service, wounds, disease, and watching his unit decimated.
While there are no widely documented supernatural ghost stories directly tied to the “thousand-yard stare” itself (which is more a psychological phenomenon than a spectral one), the Battle of Peleliu has inspired tales of lingering “ghosts” in a metaphorical sense—echoes of trauma, ruins, and memories that “haunt” survivors and visitors. However, one firsthand account from a veteran explicitly describes the island as literally haunted. In a 2009 blog post about exploring Peleliu’s WWII relics, a commenter named Vic Bond—a U.S. veteran who fought there in 1944 with the 12th Defense Battalion attached to the 1st Marine Division—shared his experience returning for the battle’s 50th anniversary in 1994. He wrote: “The island is haunted, believe me, the ghosts are there.” Bond described the transformed landscape (now lush and green, unlike the barren hell of 1944) and meeting Lt. Yamaguchi, a Japanese holdout who survived in caves for two years after the battle ended. Bond didn’t elaborate on specific apparitions, but emphasized the eerie, pervasive sense of unrest and unseen presences on the island.
Relatedly, Japanese “holdouts”—soldiers who refused to surrender and hid in caves or jungles for years after the war—have fueled ghost-like legends in the Pacific theater. On Peleliu, small groups continued guerrilla actions until as late as 1947, when 33 soldiers finally emerged and surrendered, having evaded capture in the island’s rugged terrain.
These holdouts were often thought dead, leading to rumors of “ghost soldiers” roaming isolated islands. While not supernatural, their stories blend into folklore about unseen warriors haunting former battlegrounds. Additionally, the USS Peleliu (LHA-5), a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship named after the battle and decommissioned in 2015, has its own modern ghost story. According to a social media post from a military compliance group, the ship’s forward pump room is reputedly haunted after five contractors died there from a toxic leak while repairing a sewage tank. One witness described a chief engineer (ENC) suddenly falling to his knees in the room, suggesting a chilling encounter, although the details are anecdotal and unverified.
From one bird to another… Share and join in the discussions.
Tweet
