As the effects of the polar ice cap melt are beginning to be felt across the globe; low-lying atolls in the Pacific Ocean are the first front lines in the battle against climate change.

The Marshall Islands, a country comprised of 24 coral atolls, has become one of the front lines in the fight against global warming; as sea levels continue to rise, the high tides recently exposed a swath of graves of Japanese soldiers from World War II.

The discovery was so jarring to the nation that the Prime Minister of the Marshall Islands Tony de Brum mentioned the incident during the United Nations climate talks this spring in Bonn, Switzerland, in which he said, “even the dead are affected” by climate change.

Last spring, 26 World War II era soldiers and their equipment were found on the beaches of Santo Island after unnaturally strong season of high tides and flooding ravaged the island.

“These last spring tides in February to April this year have caused not just inundation and flooding of communities but have also undermined regular land, so that even the dead are affected. There are coffins and dead people being washed away from graves. It’s that serious,” de Brum said.

The Marshall Islands have not concluded the country of origin of the soldiers and de Brum has asked for assistance in the identification process.

“We think they are Japanese soldiers. We had the exhumed skeletons sampled by the US Navy in Pearl Harbor and they helped identify where they are from, to assist in the repatriation efforts.”