Japanese occupation of Nauru
Occupied Nauru | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1942-1945 | |||||||||
Nakayama Hiromi (First) | |||||||||
• 7 March 1943 to 13 July 1943 | Takenouchi Takenao | ||||||||
• 13 July 1943 to 13 September 1945 | Soeda Hisayuki | ||||||||
Historical era | World War II | ||||||||
• Established | 1942 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 21 August 1945 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Nauru |
The Japanese occupation of Nauru was the period of three years (26 August 1942 – 13 September 1945) during which
The Japanese hoped to exploit the island's phosphate resources, and to build up their military defences in the area. They were unable to relaunch phosphate mining operations, but succeeded in transforming Nauru into a powerful stronghold, which United States forces chose to bypass during their reconquest of the Pacific. The most important infrastructure built by the Japanese was an airfield, which was the target of repeated Allied air strikes.
The war deeply affected the local population. The Japanese enforced a harsh regime, particularly on Chinese labourers who they saw as being at the bottom of the racial hierarchy; forced labour and brutal treatment were commonplace. They decided to deport the majority of Nauru's indigenous population to the Truk islands, hundreds of miles away, where mortality was extremely high. Still overpopulated with troops and imported labourers, the island was subject to food shortages, which worsened as the Allies' island-hopping strategy left Nauru completely cut off.
Although effectively neutralised by Allied air and sea control, the Japanese garrison did not surrender until eleven days after the official surrender of Japan.
Pre-war situation
Modernity reached Nauru in the form of imported goods, which had the effect of making the locals increasingly dependent on the Australian economy. Beginning in the 1920s, the Nauruans received royalties for the mining of their lands, an income that allowed them to cover their needs, but which was minimal compared with the actual value of the island's phosphate exports.[3] The population was decimated by several diseases against which they had no immune defences; however, in 1932 they reached the population threshold of 1,500 that was considered necessary for their survival. This achievement is still celebrated in Nauru as Angam Day.[4]
In spite of the economic importance of Nauru for Australia and New Zealand, the island was left militarily unprotected, since a stipulation of the League of Nations mandate for Australian administration forbade the construction of coastal defences. The island, very isolated geographically, was not under constant surveillance by the Australian navy, and was out of reach of aerial patrols; however, before the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific theatre, Nauru did not appear to be under direct threat.[5]
The Empire of Japan became firmly established in the vast area north of Nauru as a result of the South Seas Mandate of the League of Nations, and aggressive development of plantation agriculture in the islands was often facilitated by the use of Nauruan phosphate.[6]
Chinese | Westerners | Pacific Islanders | Total immigrants | Nauruan people
|
total population |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1350 | 192 | 49 | 1591 | 1761 | 3552 |
Source : Viviani 1970, pp. 181 |
Threats on Nauru
German attacks
The Second World War first reached Nauru in early December 1940 when two German armed merchantmen disguised as civilian freighters targeted the island. Their aim was to disrupt production of phosphate and thereby weaken the agriculture-based economies of Australia and New Zealand. Orion, Komet, and their supply ship Kulmerland headed for Nauru with the purpose of destroying the main infrastructure. Due to bad weather conditions, they were unable to make a landing on the island, but sank several merchantmen in the area. On 27 December, Komet returned to Nauru, and though again unable to land a shore party, severely damaged the mining facilities and exposed loading jetties with gunfire. The island's chief administrator, Frederick Royden Chalmers, a former lieutenant-colonel in the Australian Army who had served in the Boer War and First World War, reportedly stormed along the waterfront hurling verbal abuse at the German ship, which slipped away unharmed.[7]
Declaration of war by Japan
For the Japanese, the importance of Nauru was twofold: first, they were interested in acquiring the island's phosphate deposits; second, Nauru was potentially a good base from which to launch aerial attacks against the Gilbert Islands and to threaten the sea route between Australia and North America.[8]
Japanese forces launched
In other parts of the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese advance rolled forward. They occupied the Gilbert Islands, north-east of Nauru, during Christmas 1941, and in January 1942 they took Rabaul, south-west of Nauru, and established a major base there.[8] Nauru was therefore isolated, situated between the two main Japanese axes of advance. On 19 February 1942, the bombing of Darwin marked the first time in its history that Australia was directly targeted on a large scale by a foreign power. News of the attack caused deep consternation on Nauru.[8]
Evacuation of Westerners and Chinese
Following the British declaration of war on the Japanese empire, the leadership of the BPC urged the Australian government to assist in the evacuation of BPC employees.
Occupation
1942: Beginning of the occupation
Japanese invasion
The first attempt to occupy Nauru began on 11 May, when an Imperial Japanese invasion force consisting of a cruiser, two mine-layers and two destroyers, with
A second invasion force departed
The five Australians who had remained on Nauru – Chalmers (Nauru's administrator), Dr. Bernard Haselden Quinn (Government medical officer), Mr. W.H. Shugg (medical assistant), Mr. F. Harmer (BPC engineer), and Mr. W.H. Doyle (BPC overseer)[16] – were interned and placed under guard in a house near the island's hospital. The two missionaries, Father Alois Kayser (an Alsatian) and Father Pierre Clivaz (a Swiss), were, for a time, permitted to continue their religious work.[15]
New order
Soon after their arrival, the Japanese appointed Timothy Detudamo as the chief of the natives. The Nauruans were ordered to obey him, otherwise they would be "skinned and treated as pigs".[17] Detudamo had served as Head Chief of the Council of Chiefs in the pre-War administration and was respected by the Nauruans.[17] Under the Japanese regime, however, he had no autonomy; his duty was only to take orders from the occupiers and apply them.[18] Those who did not follow the Japanese rules could be severely punished. The Nauruans would witness the beheading of several Chinese, Gilbertese, and Japanese accused of breaking the law.
The Japanese requisitioned several houses abandoned by their inhabitants after the landing, as well as all vehicles owned by the natives.[18] They established a rationing system under which Japanese workers and Nauruans were entitled to 900 grams of rice and 45 grams of beef per day, while the Chinese were given smaller rations. All men were obliged to work for the Japanese, and, along with Korean and Japanese workers, were immediately put to work building an airstrip. The construction took place at breakneck pace, and the forced workers were beaten if they were unable to work as fast as ordered.[18]
If Japanese rule was harsh when contrasted with the more paternalistic Australian approach, it was, at least for the native Nauruans, not as brutal as in other areas controlled by the Japanese.[19] The occupiers tried to seduce the natives using propaganda, educational programs, and entertainment.[18] They opened a Japanese school, a language which many Nauruans learned during the war,[19] and hired native dancers for celebrations they organized, which brought the Nauruans extra money.[18] They opted not to interfere with the work of the two European priests, who had great influence among the population,[19] and allowed religious services to take place. They also hired some of the employees of the former administration.[17] However, the Japanese were particularly harsh with the Chinese, who were at the bottom of their perceived racial hierarchy. They were underfed and beaten more often and more brutally than the other inhabitants.[17]
Military works
The organization of the island's defences was the first task of the occupiers. They sited 152 mm artillery pieces around the coast and placed 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns on Command Ridge. They built pillboxes on the beach, bunkers further inland, and an underground hospital. Their main work was the construction of an airstrip (which, after the war, formed the basis of Nauru International Airport). To build it, they brought in 1,500 Japanese and Korean workers, as well as using Nauruans, Gilbertese, and Chinese as forced labour. The creation of the airstrip on the narrow coastal belt led to the expulsion of many natives from the districts of Boe and Yaren, where the best lands of the island were located.[18] The airfield became operational in January 1943.[12] Work on airstrips in Meneng and Anabar was begun but never completed.[18]
One of the goals of the Japanese in invading Nauru had been the takeover of the island's strategic phosphate industry.
Because of the distance between
1943–1944: American offensive, murders, deportations, and isolation
American offensive
By the time the Japanese occupied Nauru in the summer of 1942, their offensive in the Pacific was coming to an end; checked at the Battle of the Coral Sea and defeated at Milne Bay and Midway, the Japanese were being forced onto the defensive.[21] In 1943, as American offensives loomed in the relatively close Gilbert and Marshall Islands, the garrison on Nauru continued to improve its defences, unaware that the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a meeting in August, had decided to bypass the island. Wrote historian Samuel Eliot Morison, "it seemed unwise to leave an island with an airfield only 380 miles from Tarawa in enemy hands. But, the more Nauru was studied, the less anyone liked the idea of assaulting it. For Nauru is a solid island with no harbour or lagoon, shaped like a hat with a narrow brim of coastal plain where the enemy had built his airfield, and a crown where he had mounted coast defence artillery. The hilly interior was full of holes and caves where phosphate rock had been excavated – just the sort of terrain that the Japanese liked for defensive operations."[22]
Although spared a pitched battle, Nauru would be subject to regular aerial bombardment, while Allied warships made it increasingly difficult for supply ships to get through to the island.
Beginning in mid-November 1943, US forces, in support of their campaign in the Gilberts, pounded Nauru for six weeks, effectively destroying the airfield. From December 1943 through January 1945, smaller-scale air raids continued on an almost daily basis.[23]
The Murder of the Australians
On 25 March 1943, 15 bombers from the US Army Air Force (USAAF) bombed the airstrip, destroying eight bombers and seven fighter planes. The five Australians interned on the island were killed by the Japanese shortly after this first American bombing raid.[15]
After the war, at an Australian Military Court trial held in Rabaul in May 1946, Lieutenant Hiromi Nakayama was sentenced to death for the crime of killing the five Australians on Nauru,[24] and was hanged on 10 August.[15]
Population movements
On Nauru the Japanese established a huge garrison relative to the size of the island. In June 1943 there were 5,187 inhabitants, 2,000 more than in 1940. This figure includes 1,388 military personnel and 1,500 Korean and Japanese workers, as well as 400 Gilbertese Islanders and Chinese previously brought in by the BPC. The 1,848 Nauruans were therefore a minority on their own island.[17] At the end of June, 1,000 more military personnel were brought to Nauru.[17]
The authorities, fearful of starvation on an overpopulated island kept under blockade, resolved to deport the entire Nauruan population. Shortly after the arrival of the last military convoy, the Japanese called together a Nauruan council and made the announcement of the deportation of some of the islanders under the leadership of Timothy Detudamo. They refused to tell the Nauruans their destination, which increased anxiety among the population; they were only told that the island to which they would be sent had an abundance of food.[17] Just before departure, Nakayama, second in the military hierarchy of the island, gave Detudamo a letter bearing the seal of the emperor Hirohito, indicating that the Nauruans were under his protection.[25] This document was later used for safe-conduct by the exiles.[25]
On 29 June 1943, 600 Nauruans and seven Chinese[17] were brought to the waterfront and taken aboard (by night, to avoid Allied attacks) the freighter Akibasan Maru. The following day the boat set sail, escorted by a small navy ship,[25] for the Truk Islands, site of the headquarters of Japanese forces in the Central Pacific, 1,600 km north-west of Nauru in the Caroline Islands.[17]
Following this departure, the Japanese committed what is considered their worst war crime on Nauru: the massacre of 39
The following month, 659 emaciated
A new contingent of 1,200 soldiers[25] arrived 6 August 1943, and the same day, another group of 601 Nauruans, mainly women and children led by the two Catholic priests, Alois Kayser and Pierre Clivaz , were sent into exile. There had not yet been any news of the whereabouts of the first group.[17][25] Although cramped, conditions aboard the boats bringing the Nauruans to the Truk islands were bearable. For the vast majority of the exiles, it was the first time they had left their isolated island; therefore, along with the general anxiety, there was some excitement, particularly among Nauruan youth.[25]
On 11 September, the boat which was to be used to deport the remaining Nauruans arrived off the coast of the island, only to be destroyed by a torpedo from an American submarine. This prevented the Japanese from completing their plan of removing the entire Nauruan population and allowing only uprooted people without specific land rights to remain on the island.[25]
In 1943, 1,200 Naruans left,[26] but were replaced by a larger number of Japanese and Banabans, thus doing nothing to alleviate food shortages.[17]
Survival in isolation
Occupied Nauru was at the very end of a long supply line linking the Pacific islands to Japan. The American advance toward the Western Pacific, and the growing effectiveness of American submarines, made supply missions to Nauru increasingly difficult.[27] In September 1943, a 6,000 ton freighter loaded with supplies for the Japanese garrison was sunk off the island.[27] In addition, the annual monsoon rains largely failed during the 1943–1944 season, resulting in a severe drought on the island. In early January 1944, only two Japanese supply ships made it to Nauru. The second boat arrived on 10 January, and was the last surface ship to resupply the base for the duration of the war.[27] A final delivery of provisions and ammunition was made by two submarines in September 1944.[23]
The situation forced the inhabitants to look for alternatives to imported goods. Their main concern was to compensate for the lack of food supplies, especially the rice that was the staple food under the Japanese occupation.[27][28]
One of the Nauruans' methods to reach self-sufficiency was to exploit their gardens to the fullest. They cultivated many edible plants and were soon imitated by the Japanese, who began to farm every space available. They grew eggplant, corn, pumpkin, and sweet potato.
There was an upsurge of hunting, fishing, harvesting, and other traditional practices which had fallen into disuse during colonisation. Men would go up the cliffs hunting
1945: Last year of war
By January 1945, the air raids on Nauru had tapered off, the front lines of the Pacific War having moved to the west.[21] About 40 Nauruans had been killed in the attacks, and many more injured.[23] The food shortage became acute. Several Chinese workers died of starvation, and islanders of all stripes suffered from various diseases, made worse by malnutrition, dwindling medical supplies, and the increasingly unsanitary conditions on the island. For the most part, however, the Nauruans on Nauru were faring better than their kinsmen who had been deported in 1943.
The Nauruan exiles had been relocated to Tarik, Tol, Fefan, and other islands in the Truk archipelago (modern Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia).[23] As on Nauru, they had been forced to work for the Japanese, and had faced food shortages as Truk was in turn bombed and cut off by the Americans. Despite the best efforts of Timothy Detudamo, Father Kayser, Father Clivaz, and others, conditions were made worse in Truk by a complete lack of medical care and the Nauruans' status as aliens. The native Chuukese resented having to share scarce resources with the interlopers, while the Japanese treated them much more harshly than on Nauru. Many of the exiles suffered beatings, and many women were sexually assaulted. All were forced into long hours of heavy labor, mainly excavating defensive positions and growing food for the Japanese garrison.
Even after the Japanese surrender announcement on 15 August 1945, the Nauruan exiles had little choice but to continue working for the Japanese for several weeks, seemingly forgotten by the victorious Allies. While Detudamo wrote letters to Allied commanders pleading for help, Nauruans continued to die of malnutrition-related illnesses and simple starvation. In one six-month period in 1945, 200 Nauruans died on Tarik.[15]
In January 1946, the deportees were finally repatriated to Nauru by the BPC ship Trienza. Of the 1,200 Nauruans who had left in 1943, fewer than 800 returned.
Japanese surrender
As the Pacific War finally reached its end, there was some uncertainty among the Allies as to whom Nauru and neighboring Ocean Island should be surrendered to.[32] They were in a zone under American command, and it had been planned that US troops would liberate the islands; however, the Australians and New Zealanders emphasised the fact that both islands were critical to their economy, and that phosphate mining needed to be resumed as soon as possible.[32] Thus it was agreed that the Royal Australian Navy would handle the task, with the Australian commander signing the surrender document twice, first as the representative of the United Kingdom, and then on behalf of the American Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet.[32]
On 8 September, Australian planes dropped leaflets giving notice of the coming of three boats with personnel to oversee surrender proceedings.
The following day, a contingent of 500 Australian soldiers landed. They were greeted by a jubilant crowd, while the Japanese were confined to their barracks. That afternoon, during a military ceremony, the Union Jack was hoisted over Nauru for the first time in three years.[33] The executives of the BPC surveyed the island to determine the extent of war damage to mining infrastructure, and found the phosphate factory totally destroyed.[34] However, they found that the health of the population was better than had been expected, based on the testimony of two Japanese who had fled the island in June 1945.[33]
Between 1–3 October, the 3,745 Japanese and Koreans on the island were taken on board Allied ships heading for Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands.[32] During the transfer, the former occupiers were molested by the Nauruans in charge of the boarding operations.[33] They were also violently attacked with canes by Chinese seeking revenge on their former tormentors. The abusers were harshly pushed back by the Australians.[33]
Japanese soldiers | Japanese and Korean workers | Pacifics Islanders (Gilbertins, Banabans) | Chinese | Nauruans | total population |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2681 | 1054 | 837 | 166 | 591 | 5329 |
Source : Tanaka 2010 |
Aftermath
No climactic battle ever took place on Nauru, and the Japanese launched only a handful of minor raids from it. Nevertheless, the island played an important role in the campaigns of the Central Pacific. It was too well-defended to invade, yet its airfield and strategic location made it too threatening to ignore; thus the Americans had to divert considerable effort and resources to keep it neutralised. It could be said that militarily, the Japanese on Nauru did their job very effectively. Over 300 of them died from malnutrition, disease, and enemy action.
The BPC moved quickly. With much of the European staff returned, new facilities built, and new workers brought in, production was resumed in July 1946. Sanitary conditions on the island were quickly restored.
For the Nauruans, the occupation had a profound effect on their society and psychology. Unprotected by the Australians, bombed by the Americans, tormented by the Japanese, and shunned by the Chuukese, the seeds of self-determination were planted. Wrote historian Nancy J. Pollock:
First, determined to control their own lives after having been pawns in a major war, they rejected the British Phosphate Commission's offer to relocate them. Nauruans wanted to maintain ties to their island. After the war the fight for phosphate royalties continued with renewed vigor, ending only when the Nauruans bought the phosphate industry from the commission for A$20 million, a transaction entwined intimately with Nauru's declaration of independence in 1968. Second, their land became even more precious to them. Most Nauruans continue to live on Nauru. Those who do migrate do so either to seek education, to take positions in Nauruan diplomatic missions, or, in a few cases, to take jobs in Australia. But the bulk of the Nauruan population can be found living on the island of Nauru. In this they differ markedly from other Pacific Island nations where a growing proportion of the population is to be found in metropolitan countries.[23]
See also
References
- ^ a b Stanley C. Jersey (29 February 2004). "The Battle for Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll". Archived from the original on 13 February 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
- ^ Viviani 1970, pp. 40–42
- ^ Viviani 1970, pp. 51
- ^ Viviani 1970, pp. 53
- ^ Gill 1957, pp. 281–283
- ^ Sydney David Waters (1956). The Royal New Zealand Navy (The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945 ed.). Historical Publications Branch. pp. 144–146.
- ^ "Chalmers, Frederick Royden (1881–1943)". Biography – Frederick Royden Chalmers – Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Garrett 1996, pp. 13–20
- ^ Gill 1957, p. 486
- ^ ISBN 0-313-31395-4.
- ^ The Chinese Communities in the Smaller Countries of the South Pacific: Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, Cook Islands (PDF). MacMillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2011. Working Paper 10
- ^ a b Pacific Magazine History of Nauru during Second World war Archived 8 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 92-1-070936-5.
- ^ Bullard, p. 57.
- ^ a b c d e f Yuki Tanaka. "Japanese Atrocities on Nauru during the Pacific War: The murder of Australians, the massacre of lepers and the ethnocide of Nauruans 太平洋戦争中のナウル島における日本軍の残虐行為−−オーストラリア人殺害、癩病患者大量殺戮、ナウル人文化根絶 :: JapanFocus". Retrieved 23 December 2014.
- ^ Australia's Forgotten Prisoners: Civilians Interned by the Japanese in World War Two, Christina Twomey, p50 (notes)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Viviani 1970, pp. 77–87
- ^ a b c d e f g Garrett 1996, pp. 31–37
- ^ ISBN 982-02-0121-7.
- ^ Williams & Macdonald 1985, p. 325
- ^ a b "The History Place – Timeline of Pacific War". Retrieved 23 December 2014.
- ^ History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: Aleutians, Gilberts, and Marshalls, S.E. Morison, pp83-85
- ^ a b c d e Pollock, Nancy J. "Nauruans during World War II" (PDF). pp. 91–107.
- ^ "Jap to Hang for Murder of Europeans"; The Canberra Times, Fri. 17 May 1946
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Garrett 1996, pp. 51–58
- ^ Carl N. McDaniel, John M. Gowdy, Paradise for Sale, Chapter 2 Archived 1 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e Garrett 1996, pp. 146–149
- ^ ISSN 1024-5316.
- ^ a b c Garrett 1996, pp. 152–153
- ISBN 978-1317416128.
By the mid-twentieth century, coconuts and pandanus, along with the skills and knowledge required to process them into a variety of preserved food products, had been largely forgotten (Wedgewood 1936). The Japanese occupation of Nauru during the Second World War starkly highlighted the island's almost complete dependence upon imported food. As supply ships were frequently torpedoed, the island's large population of Japanese soldiers and Nauruan people survived predominantly on Japanese-farmed pumpkins (which had to be fertilized using large of human excrement), rice rations and fish (Government of Nauru 1994).
- ^ a b c d Garrett 1996, pp. 150–152
- ^ a b c d e Sydney David Waters (1956). The Royal New Zealand Navy. Wellington: Historical Publications Branch.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Garrett 1996, pp. 168–175
- ^ Williams & Macdonald 1985, pp. 339–340
Bibliography
- Garrett, Jemima (1996). Island exiles. Sydney: ABC books. p. 200. ISBN 0-7333-0485-0.
- Gill, G. Hermon (1957). Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 2 – Navy. Vol. I – Royal Australian Navy, 1939–1942 (1st edition, 1957 ed.). Canberra: Australian War Memorial. Gill57.
- Williams, Maslyn; Macdonald, Barrie (1985). The Phosphateers: A History of the British Phosphate Commissioners and the Christmas Island Phosphate Commission. p. 586. ISBN 0-522-84302-6.
- Tanaka, Yuki (2010). Japanese Atrocities on Nauru during the Pacific War: The murder of Australians, the massacre of lepers and the ethnocide of Nauruans. Japan focus.
- Viviani, Nancy (1970). Nauru, Phosphate and Political Progress. Australian National University Press. ISBN 0-7081-0765-6.