Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Frontispiece
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Preface to Volume II
- Part VII Rethinking the Pacific
- Part VIII Approaches, Sources, and Subaltern Histories of the Modern Pacific
- Part IX Culture Contact and the Impact of Pre-colonial European Influences
- Part X The Colonial Era in the Pacific
- Part XI The Pacific Century?
- 54 The USA and the Pacific since 1800
- 55 World War II and the Pacific
- 56 The Nuclear Pacific
- 57 Shrinking the Pacific since 1945
- 58 China and the Pacific since 1949
- 59 Pacific Island Nations since Independence
- Part XII Pacific Futures
- References to Volume II
- Index
55 - World War II and the Pacific
from Part XI - The Pacific Century?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2022
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Frontispiece
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Preface to Volume II
- Part VII Rethinking the Pacific
- Part VIII Approaches, Sources, and Subaltern Histories of the Modern Pacific
- Part IX Culture Contact and the Impact of Pre-colonial European Influences
- Part X The Colonial Era in the Pacific
- Part XI The Pacific Century?
- 54 The USA and the Pacific since 1800
- 55 World War II and the Pacific
- 56 The Nuclear Pacific
- 57 Shrinking the Pacific since 1945
- 58 China and the Pacific since 1949
- 59 Pacific Island Nations since Independence
- Part XII Pacific Futures
- References to Volume II
- Index
Summary
The Pacific War of 1942–5 was no ‘Fatal Impact’ on Pacific peoples and cultures but, like first contact with foreigners from the eighteenth century, it was fatal to many individual Indigenous people and, unsurprisingly, to thousands of the belligerents.1 The war’s effects differed greatly, depending on whether islands became sites of combat or of rear-line support. Almost all of Polynesia remained behind the front lines, where islands hosting military installations experienced a few giddy years of unparalleled prosperity, a marked contrast to the battlegrounds of much of Micronesia and western Melanesia, where people suffered deprivation, fear, and loss. Lasting impacts of the war have been varied, subtle, and less susceptible to quantification.
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- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean , pp. 588 - 613Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023