AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Perched on the wind-scoured ridge of Sokehs Mountain above Kolonia, the capital of Pohnpei, these rusted anti-aircraft guns stand as the most striking relics of Japan's wartime fortification of the island. The twin Type 89 12.7 cm guns—still mounted on their concrete revetments after eighty years—are the centerpiece of a sprawling hilltop complex of bunkers, trenches, tunnels, and command-post foundations listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.↗↗
The site rewards a moderately steep hour-long hike (or a rough drive partway) with sweeping views across the lagoon, the town below, and the emerald ridgeline that was once Pohnpei's last line of air defense.↗↗
A Ridge Fortified for War
When Japan took control of the former German colony of Ponape in 1914 and later militarized it during World War II, the long north-south ridge of Sokehs—known locally as Pohndollap, "on the big hill"—was the obvious defensive position. At 276 meters it rises directly above the administrative center at Kolonia and commands clear sightlines over the reef passages to the west and the open Pacific to the east.