page_title: Pacific Islands home front during World War II
section_title: The Pacific until 1941
hierarchical_section_title: Pacific Islands home front during World War II / The Pacific until 1941
caption_attribution_description: English: Occupation of German-Samoa at the beginning of World War I. Hoisting of the Union Jack.Deutsch: Besetzung Deutsch-Samoas zu Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs. Hissung des Union Jack.
context_page_description: The civilian population, culture and infrastructure of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia were completely changed between 1941 and 1945, due to the logistical requirements of the Allies in their war against Japan. At the start of the war some of the islands had experienced up to 200 years of colonialism from Europe and its colonies, some on the verge of being fully annexed, others close to independence. The early Japanese expansion through the western Pacific then introduced a new colonial system to many islands. The Japanese occupation subjected the indigenous people of Guam and other Pacific Islands to forced labor, family separation, incarceration, execution, concentration camps, and forced prostitution, but also created opportunities for advanced education.
  The Pacific Islands then experienced military action, massive troop movements, and limited resource extraction and building projects as the Allies pushed the Japanese back to their home islands. The juxtaposition of all these cultures led to a new understanding among the indigenous Pacific Islanders of their relationship with the colonial powers.
context_section_description: By 1941 the Pacific Islands had been on the periphery of many wars between the great powers of Europe and America. Japan too had been slowly extending its influence along the edge of the western Pacific for much of the 20th century leading up to World War II. After the initial scramble for positions by the Spanish, Dutch, English and French, Guam had been ceded to America and German-Samoa had changed hands in the First World War. 
  Christianity had been spread to every inhabited island and been adopted to varying extents. The interior of New Guinea was largely unexplored by Europeans. However, the rest of the Pacific was fully in the control of colonial powers, as the Pacific Islands were comparatively slow in the creation of Independence movements.
caption: Occupation of German-Samoa, 1914
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