Thousands of New Zealanders fought in the Pacific War, which was sparked by the Japanese bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. It was a conflict fought on a vast scale over huge distances. For the New Zealanders, this was a war fought close to home.
United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it as 'a date which will live in infamy' - 7 December 1941, the day the Japanese bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
In 1942 the Battle of the Coral Sea (7-8 May) and Battle of Midway (3-6 June) between the Japanese and United States navies left the United States with superior numbers of essential aircraft carriers.
Once the tide had turned in favour of the United States and its allies, American troops began 'island hopping' through the central Pacific, taking one island after another. Japanese naval power was destroyed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines in October 1944, and invasions of Okinawa and Iwo Jima followed.
New Zealanders who served in the Pacific War had diverse experiences. They were involved in fighting in the jungle, some spent time in Japanese prisoner of war camps, others took part in air raids or manned ships, while others played a vital support role.
The Leander was hit just abaft the ‘A’ boiler room. Four hundred and ninety kilograms of high explosive killed everyone in that boiler room and the blast, venting up through the boiler room duct, also blew eight men from the No.1 102 mm mount over the side, where any survivors drowned.
A wooden carved 32 piece chess set encased in a coconut shell handmade
by Lieutenant Lancelot Hugh Herd while a prisoner of war in Changi
Prison, Singapore.
The Solomons Island parakeet Private Hunt, mascot for 37 New Zealand Infantry Batalltion, 3 New Zealand Division in the Pacific, poses with his trainer.
New Zealanders from 8 Brigade, 3rd New Zealand Division, helped their American allies seize control of Mono in the Solomon Islands. Forty New Zealanders lost their lives in weeks of fierce fighting against the island's Japanese defenders.
