Came

War Came To the Pacific

The most important event in the Pacific in the last quarter century undoubtedly was the Pacific War, December 7, 1941- August 15, 1945. No Pacific territory was left untouched by it.

Some territories were battle grounds. The sociological conse quences everywhere were profound.

WAR, actual and bloody, came to the Pacific with the treacher ous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941.

British and French possessions in the Pacific, had, of course, been “at war” since September, 1939 although this preliminary to Pearl Harbour was mostly just a period of Spitfire fund drives and copra trouble because world shipping was concentrated in the northern hemisphere. There was in addition, of course, a falling out of the young men who joined locally raised con tingents, or went to Australia, New Zealand or Europe and joined one of the forces there, subsequently

fighting in the Middle East, Africa or Belgium and France.

Pearl Harbour changed all this for the Pacific. In a matter of hours, war had become a personal thing for all dwellers therein and in the next few weeks, as the Japs pushed south at speed, whole islands and archipelagoes were en gulfed until Australia and New Zealand, pulling their puny defences together, faced the immediate prospect of becoming the front line.

This is not the place to recount the whole story of war in the Pacific. But now, ten years after it ended, it is interesting to look back on some of its incidents and some of its consequences.

The Yanks Came ONE of the most important facetf of war in the Pacific was the American invasion of Soutl: Pacific islands and the enduring influence that invasion had. Nod enduring in a material sense (fon although the Americans, during their four years in the area, pen formed constructional works od magnitude, few of these projects an now with us) but in that they taughi Australasia and the South Pacific fot think American.

The United States lost six battle? ships, 240 planes and 3,300 men ai Pearl Harbour. A crippling blow one might have expected. Yet, b J March, 1942, American forces bans come south about and had estabf lished themselves in Australia, Neve Zealand and New Caledonia. Veo shortly afterward they had estabd lished more bases in Fiji and Santo: New Hebrides, and as the monthd