New Zealand in the Pacific War
New Zealand in the Pacific War

Author: Bruce M. Petty

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2008-02-18

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780786435272

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With America's 1941 entry into World War II and the movement of Japanese forces into the southern Pacific, a number of U.S. troops were sent to protect New Zealand so that their troops might remain with commitments in the Middle East and other important, established locations. Many American military men found New Zealand to be a second home as they were welcomed and adopted into communities by the locals. Over the course of the next four years, almost 1400 New Zealand women married American servicemen. The individual interviews herein record the varied and interesting tapestry of New Zealand's often overlooked war contribution and new relationship with America: New Zealand war veterans, New Zealanders on the home front, and American servicemen stationed on the island nation during the war. Four interviews with adults born as a result of American soldier--New Zealand women love affairs shed light on this sometimes uncomfortable aspect of all foreign wars. Photographs and short biographies of the interviewees round out this fascinating oral history.

Pacific War
Pacific War

Author: Matthew Wright

Publisher: Raupo

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9780790009087

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In December 1941, Japan attacked the British Commonwealth and the United States. For a few desperate months during early 1942, New Zealand faced down the threat of a blockade and, ultimately, invasion. fought the Japanese on land, sea and air, from Malaya to the Solomons and, finally, in Japanese home waters. New Zealand also provided bases and recreation facilities for US forces, food for the whole campaign, and even physicists for the atomic bomb project. war to which New Zealand was also making a contribution, and New Zealand's land forces were withdrawn from the Pacific in 1944 after manpower shortages reached crisis point - an issue that soon became entwined with Pacific politics. struggle, focusing particularly on the politics of war and the short-lived army contribution to the Pacific Islands. Diaries and letters from the front, some previously unpublished, help bring New Zealand's war experience alive.

The Great War for New Zealand
The Great War for New Zealand

Author: Vincent O'Malley

Publisher: Bridget Williams Books

Published: 2016-10-10

Total Pages: 881

ISBN-13: 192727754X

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Spanning nearly two centuries from first contact through to settlement and apology, ​this major work focuses on the human impact of the war in the Waikato, its origins and aftermath.

Pacific War Stories: In the Words of Those Who Survived
Pacific War Stories: In the Words of Those Who Survived

Author:

Publisher: WW Norton

Published: 2011-09-27

Total Pages: 1224

ISBN-13: 0789260107

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This is the most extensive collection published to date of first-person oral histories on so many diverse aspects of the war in the Pacific—told in gripping, eyewitness accounts by more than seventy veterans from all branches of service. In this new book by the authors of Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory of World War II in the Pacific, the history of the War in the Pacific comes vividly to life in the words of those who witnessed it first hand. The editors create for the reader, as the veterans themselves recall it, what that war was like—how it looked, felt, smelled, and sounded. The stories collected here are a unique portrayal of the mundane, exotic, boring, terrifying, life-altering events that made up their wartime experiences in World War II in the Pacific, a war fought on countless far-flung islands over an area that constitutes about one-third of the globe. What the veterans saw and lived through has stayed with them their entire lives, and much of it comes to the surface again through their vivid memories. This is an important book for military buffs as well as for the survivors of World War II and their families. The narratives, grouped into fifteen thematic, chronologically arranged chapters, are stirring, first-hand accounts, from front-line combat at the epicenter of violence and death to restless, weary boredom on rear area islands thousands of miles from the fighting. While their experiences differed, all were changed by what happened to them in the Pacific. These are not the stories of sweeping strategies or bold moves by generals and admirals. Instead, we hear from men and women on the lower rungs, including ordinary seamen on vessels that encountered Japanese warships and planes and sometimes came out second best, rank-and-file Marines who were in amtracs churning toward bullet-swept tropical beaches and saw their buddies killed beside them, and astounded eyewitnesses to the war’s sudden start on December 7, 1941.

Operation Goodtime and the Battle of the Treasury Islands, 1943
Operation Goodtime and the Battle of the Treasury Islands, 1943

Author: Reg Newell

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2012-09-26

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1476600309

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A force of New Zealanders and Americans invaded the Treasury Islands in the South Pacific on October 27, 1943, retaking them from their Japanese occupiers. Codenamed Operation Goodtime, the action marked the first time New Zealand forces took part in an opposed landing since Gallipoli in 1915. In an unusual allocation of troops in the American-dominated theater, New Zealand provided the fighting men and America the air, naval, and logistical support. Confronting extreme risks against a determined Japanese foe, the Allies nevertheless succeeded with relatively few casualties. Because of the need for operational security, Operation Goodtime received little publicity and has been relegated to a footnote in the history of the war in the Pacific. This is the first complete account of the Allied seizure of the Treasury Islands.

Mothers' Darlings of the South Pacific
Mothers' Darlings of the South Pacific

Author: Judith A. Bennett

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0824858298

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Over the course of World War II, two million American military personnel occupied bases throughout the South Pacific, leaving behind a human legacy of at least 4,000 children born to indigenous mothers. Based on interviews conducted with many of these American-indigenous children and several of the surviving mothers, Mothers’ Darlings of the South Pacific explores the intimate relationships that existed between untold numbers of U.S. servicemen and indigenous women during the war and considers the fate of their mixed-race children. These relationships developed in the major U.S. bases of the South Pacific Command, from Bora Bora in the east across to Solomon Islands in the west, and from the Gilbert Islands in the north to New Zealand, in the southernmost region of the Pacific. The American military command carefully managed interpersonal encounters between the sexes, applying race-based U.S. immigration law on Pacific peoples to prevent marriage “across the color line.” For indigenous women and their American servicemen sweethearts, legal marriage was impossible; giving rise to a generation of fatherless children, most of whom grew up wanting to know more about their American lineage. Mothers’ Darlings of the South Pacific traces these children’s stories of loss, emotion, longing, and identity—and of lives lived in the shadow of global war. Each chapter discusses the context of the particular island societies and shows how this often determined the ways intimate relationships developed and were accommodated during the war years and beyond. Oral histories reveal what the records of colonial governments and the military have largely ignored, providing a perspective on the effects of the U.S. occupation that until now has been disregarded by Pacific war historians. The richness of this book will appeal to those interested the Pacific, World War II, as well as intimacy, family, race relations, colonialism, identity, and the legal structures of U.S. immigration.

Pacific Star
Pacific Star

Author: Reg Newell

Publisher: Exisle Publishing

Published: 2015-10-01

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 1775592510

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The war in the South Pacific saw some of the most gruelling fighting of World War Two. Conditions were unpleasant – fetid heat, torrential downpours and hostile flora and fauna – while the Japanese enemy were ruthless and would often fight to the last man. Amphibious warfare, jungle warfare and the need to co-operate with our American ally all meant that new demands were made on New Zealand soldiers. Yet the war in the South Pacific came to be seen as an easy war, generally overlooked (with the exception of Guadalcanal) by historians. From ignorance of what the soldiers were called upon to endure, the notion arose that service in the South Pacific was somehow less worthy than the ‘real war’ in Europe against the Nazis. This attitude continued in the post-war world and today the soldiers of 3NZ Division are all but forgotten. Pacific Star sets the record straight, shedding new light on the sacrifices and tribulations which the soldiers of 3NZ Division had to endure in the service of the Allied cause. The book covers their initial deployment in Fiji and New Caledonia, and describes the major battles the division fought in the Solomons: Vella Lavella, the Treasury Islands and the Green Islands, as well as their sometimes strained relationship with the US military. Reg Newell has interviewed veterans for this book, which includes new maps and previously unpublished photographs.

The Battlecruiser New Zealand
The Battlecruiser New Zealand

Author: Matthew Wright

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2021-08-31

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1526784041

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This book tells the story of HMS New Zealand, a battlecruiser paid for by the government of New Zealand at the height of its pro-Imperial ‘jingo’ era in 1909, when Britain’s ally Japan was perceived as a threat in Australasia and the Pacific. Born of the collision between New Zealand’s patriotic dreams and European politics, the tale of HMS New Zealand is further wrapped in the turbulent power-plays at the Admiralty in the years leading up to the First World War. The ship went on to have a distinguished First World War career, when she was present in all three major naval battles – Heligoland, Dogger Bank and Jutland – in the North Sea. The book ‘busts’ many of the myths associated with the ship and her construction, including the intent of the gift, New Zealand’s ability to pay, deployment, and the story behind the piupiu (skirt) and tiki (pendant) that, the crew believed, bestowed special protection upon the vessel. All is inter-woven with the human and social context to create a ‘biography’ of the ship as an expression of human endeavour, in significantly more detail than any of the summaries available in prior accounts. Extensively illustrated, this is a book with appeal to a wide audience, from naval enthusiasts and historians to the general reader with a wider interest in the story of Empire. The use of archival material available only in New Zealand, including the Ship’s Book, adds a dimension and novelty not previously included in histories of this great battlecruiser.