That is an interesting question. I don't know if the barren landscape was due to chemical defoliants, flamethrowers/napalm, hard fighting, or mechanical clearing.
My understanding in general is that rain forest soil is quite poor due to high rates of leaching. If the topsoil was churned under due to hard fighting, some time may have been required for seeds to be deposited and begin sprouting.
In Stalingrad, my understanding is that Mamayev Kurgan remained a bald knob for several years after the battle.
Left to itself, the jungle would eventually reestablish itself, but the resulting terrain is likely quite different from the original.
Some ecosystems never recover, such as near-desert grasslands that are overgrazed and grow up in cactus and scrub. However, rainforest is pretty resilient, if things are left alone after the original clearance.
I suspect that photo might have been taken near the Aitape beachhead looking out to sea. I don’t think the limited amount of bombing and artillery fire unleashed on the north coast of New Guinea would much disturb the jungle. This is different than the central Pacific islands bombarded by battleships and certainly not comparable to the devastation around Stalingrad.