War in the Pacific

FIRST WORLD WAR  

More than 2500 Māori and Pacific Islanders served overseas with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the First World War. More than 700 were wounded and 336 killed. 

Source: Hēnāre Kōhere, NZHistory

PACIFIC ISLANDS CONTRIBUTION IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR 

The main indigenous Pacific contribution to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) came from the Cook Islands and Niue, territories that had been annexed to New Zealand in 1901. The Niuean contingent and 1st Contingent of Cook Islanders provided reinforcements for the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion in Egypt and then France. The 2nd and 3rd Cooks contingents, known as the Rarotongan Company, served with the British in the Sinai and Palestine campaigns against the Ottoman Turks. All were volunteers.

Pacific Island soldiers faced many difficulties during the war. Most spoke no English and many struggled to adjust to the army diet and wearing boots. The greatest danger, though, was European diseases, especially in the cold climate of northern France.

Source: Pacific Islanders in NZEF, NZHistory

THE CAPTURE OF GERMAN SAMOA

When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, Britain asked New Zealand to seize German Samoa as a ‘great and urgent Imperial service’. New Zealand’s response was swift. Led by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Logan, the 1400-strong Samoa Advance Party of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force landed at Apia on 29 August. 

There was no opposition.

But had Germany placed greater importance on Samoa, or had the German East Asia Squadron intercepted the New Zealand convoy en route, the story could have been very different.

A fortnight later, on 14 September, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau arrived off Apia and the New Zealand garrison braced itself for large-calibre gunfire. Luckily, the cruisers left once their skippers realised that Samoa was no longer in German hands. They raided Tahiti on 22 September, sinking a French gunboat and bombarding Papeete.

Source: Capture of German Samoa - Seizing German Samoa, NZHistory

SOME PACIFIC ISLAND WWI SOLDIERS

THE SECOND WORLD WAR: WAR IN THE PACIFIC

Thousands of New Zealanders from all three of the armed forces served in the Pacific: the Navy, the Air Force, and 3 Division of the Army. It was a war that took young New Zealand men and women to exotic places, many of which they'd probably never heard of: Mono, Nissan, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Okinawa. Sometimes working closely with the United States, New Zealanders fought the Japanese in three main areas — Singapore, the Solomon Islands and in the waters surrounding Japan. New Zealanders were also stationed in other places such as New Caledonia, operating radio and radar stations and medical facilities.

Source: War in the Pacific - The war against Japan, NZHistory

THE THIRD DIVISION

A 13,000 strong, two-brigade division, the 3rd NZ Division, under the command of Harold Barrowclough, was deployed to New Caledonia in November 1942. It later moved forward into the Solomons, where it took part in three landings. But manpower problems at home forced its withdrawal and disbandment in 1944.  

AIR AND NAVAL FORCES

New Zealand also provided forces from all three armed services for the Solomons campaign, where they served under American command. The Royal New Zealand Air Force made a major contribution. In all, 20 squadrons served in the Solomons, and there were 8,000 airmen deployed there in 1945.

 Source: Second World War - American counter-offensive, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

THE IMPACT OF THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC 

The war (World War 2) in the Pacific had profound consequences for New Zealand and the region. The relationships forged with the United States during the conflict grew stronger in the years after the Second World War. In 1951 it entered a formal alliance with the United States (and Australia) that would last another 30 years.

Source: War in the Pacific - The final stages, NZHistory

RUSSELL CLARK

New Zealander Russell Clark was an Official War Artist in the Second World War. This sample of his paintings below depicts his experience of the war in the Pacific.

FAST FACTS

• In World War Two the Cook Islands Rarotonga and Aitutaki had an active home guard to help defend the islands in case of attack.
• Only 10 days after the outbreak of World War 1 (5 August 1915) the Samoa Expeditionary Force sailed from New Zealand and captured Samoa (which was then German territory). 
• During World War 1 around 500, Pacific Islanders served overseas with  New Zealand forces.
• In World War 2 when American soldiers arrived in Tonga some of their instructions included;
• “Do not disturb or injure the flying foxes [bats]” and “Sunday recreation will be conducted away from the churches. Tongans will not be invited to play on Sunday.”
• On January 16, 1942, a Japanese submarine shelled Pago Pago harbour in American Samoa.  

SUPPORTING RESOURCES

Anzac day — Pacific countries reflect on their role in war.

100 Kiwi Stories of WWI — Tongan soldiers struggled in a strange land.

Cut off from the World  — Tongan Islanders get their first news of the war.

Home guard on the Cook Islands  — the Cook Islands Local Defence Force 1941-1945.

Invasions, naval battles and German raiders  —  WW1 in the Pacific. 

Pa George — a biography of a Cook Islands solider in WW1.

Pacific Island littered with WWII-era debris — decades after the end of World War II, the scars of the conflict are still strikingly visible on a remote Pacific island.

The Kingdom of Tonga — Pasifika involvement in the First World War.

The smallest kingdom — Tonga Island's war effort.

Pacific Wrecks — the United States Invasion of Tonga In 1942.

Weekly Review No. 179 (1945) — official visit to the Pacific Islands during the Second World War.

Pacific soldiers — were there Pacific Islanders at Gallipoli in 1915?

WWII in Color — part 11: The Island War.

This story was curated and compiled by Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa | National Library of New Zealand, Services to Schools staff, March 2020.