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BACKGROUND ON VANUATU
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[Chuck was stationed here sometime between October and December, 1943]
Location
The Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is located some 1,750 km east of Australia, 500 km north-east of New Caledonia, west of Fiji and south of the Solomon Islands. It was named New Hebrides during its colonial period.
Vanuatu is only 2.5 hours flying time North East of Brisbane and 3.5 hours from Sydney, Australia. It's a little over 2 hours from Auckland, New Zealand. There are regular flights from New Zealand, Honiara, Australia, Noumea and Fiji.
History
Many of the islands of Vanuatu have been inhabited for thousands of years, the oldest archaeological evidence found dating to 2000 BC. In 1605, the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós became the first European to reach the islands, believing it to be part of Terra Australis. Europeans began settling the islands in the late 18th century, after British explorer James Cook visited the islands on his second voyage, and gave them the name New Hebrides.
In 1887, the islands began to be administered by a French-British naval commission. In 1906, the French and British agreed to an Anglo-French Condominium on the New Hebrides.
During World War II, the islands of Efate and Espiritu Santo were used as allied military bases. In the 1960s, the ni-Vanuatu people started to press for self-governance and later independence; full sovereignty was finally granted by both European nations on July 30, 1980. It joined the UN in 1981, and the Non-Aligned Movement in 1983.
World War II History
With the fall of France in W.W. II. the French side of the Condominium were, from the Vichy point of view, technically at war with the other half - Britain. However in this year of 1940, the French population of the New Hebrides immediately declared their support for General De Gaul's Free French Forces. In fact they were the first of France's Pacific colonies to do so. Perhaps for the only time in the life of the Condominium, the French and British were not at complete odds with one other. With France under German rule, the French Ambassador was placed in a difficult position with no support structure in terms of a properly functioning French government. But concerns over such matters were overshadowed by the fast approaching Japanese forces.
In early 1942, the Japanese reached the nearby Solomon Islands and the New Hebridean's lived in real fear that they would be next. The Americans, however, arrived first, totally unannounced, in May 1942.
It is a sight that can only be imagined; to wake up and glance out in the dawn light to the vast expanse of Mele Bay - filled with warships. A good number of the Vila population fled into the hills in the belief that the Japanese had arrived. It took some time to convince everyone otherwise, but the stealthy nature of the American arrival was imperative in its defensive strategy against the the seemingly unbeatable Japanese.
Being inherently rather brash, and being at war, the Americans simply Took Over. They built an entire infrastructure to support their introduced military population and the necessary equipment to wage a counter offensive. They brought in tens of thousands of tons of machinery, built barracks and hospitals, a road around the entire island, airstrips and wharves, all with the totally efficient lightening speed typical of the Seabees and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, albeit in a desperate need to push back the Japanese. Regardless of the reasons, it left the foot shuffling beurocracies of France and Britain in shame for all they had not done for the islands.
In Espiritu Santo, 100,000 troops arrived in short order, doubling the population of the country almost overnight. And throughout the islands an interesting social phenomena took place. Indigenous New Hebrideans were astounded at the apparent equality with which black and white military personnel were treated. And when these New Hebridean natives went to work for the Americans, they received respect and wages far in excess to anything they had ever experienced before. The typically generous Americans would also look at the native New Hebridean living conditions and give them clothes and beds, ice boxes and furniture, - all requisitioned from the PX.
The early 1940's were Halcyon years for the native New Hebrideans. Vanuatu was attacked only once by a Japanese plane (that was shot down), resulting in but one casualty on Santo - Besse the cow. Thus they never experienced the horrors of Japanese occupied New Guinea or Solomon Islands. They saw only fair treatment, better living conditions, modern medical aid, economic growth and a vast expansion of facilities, many of which are still in use with only minimal upgrading, fifty six years later.
Three years later and the end of the war, the Americans left as swiftly as they arrived. The lend lease policy that had funded the war effort, meant the American economy could not sustain the influx of returning goods. Thus, the Americans suggested to the Condominium Government they might like to purchase plant equipment, bulldozers and modern workshop machinery, cranes and trucks, office equipment and, well, everything, for a price of only seven cents in the dollar on the real value of the goods.
Typically, the Condominium foot shuffled and hedged and finally replied that, since the Americans were going to leave it behind anyway, why should the Condominium pay for it? The disgusted response was to bulldoze every movable object into the ocean. This wanton discard contributed to the already proliferating Cargo Cults throughout the islands, and the growing resentment of native New Hebridean's to Condominium rule.
There are places around Efate Island where divers will find much of this discarded war materiel, but the most famous of all is a place called Million Dollar Point in Espiritu Santo. The postwar Condominium authorities were left with a legacy of, from their perspective, overpaid, over ambitious New Hebridean natives. Today, many ni-Vanuatu recall how the authorities came into their homes and took what the Americans had given their fathers; clothes, furniture and such precious treasures as ice boxes and radios. Britain and France were left in tatters at the end of the War. They had little enough to rebuild their own nations and economies, to be concerned over the needs of distant Pacific outposts and thus the New Hebridean economy staggered along under its hopelessly inadequate dual political system. But a spark had been lit and it would not die. By the 1960's it was ready to ignite.
Million Dollar Point
Champagne Beach is where the Americans celebrated the end of the war and Million Dollar Point where hundreds of tonnes of US equipment dumped. American efforts to sell the equipment were unsuccessful, so rather than give it to the then Condominium government, the Americans dumped it in the sea.
Considered an environment disaster 60 years ago, today the area is a designated National Park, so that means no souveniring of anything, and a diver's paradise. Here scuba divers will find the President Coolidge which sank in Santo Harbour after striking a mine. It still lies structurally intact in 20 to 60 metres of water and is the world's largest intact shipwreck accessible to scuba divers. Just outside the channel lies the destroyer the USS Tucker. There are also relics to explore in Santo's jungle here you can visit a preserved crashed fighter plane. The jungle is so dense that no one is sure how many War World 2 planes actually crashed here. In fact just two years ago another plane was found.
Sources for the above information:
Vanuatu Travel
World War 2 Relics, VANUATU
Pg. 17
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