Hardly a three-hour flight from Brisbane lies the small island nation of the Solomon Islands. Known by very few Australians, the Solomon Islands played a crucial role in the Pacific fight in World War II. Now, years later, this small country still bears the scars of war – unexploded ordnances (UXOs) are left scattered throughout the Solomon Islands, including the bustling capital of Honiara.
Earlier in 2020 two people, Australian Trent Lee, 40, and British national Luke Atkinson, 57, were killed in a bomb blast in the Solomon Islands. Lee and Atkinson were working for Norwegian People’s Aid, an organisation that operates in 19 countries to remove undetonated wartime explosives.
After WW2, the winning American forces were supposed to properly dispose of all unused munitions by dumping them deep in the ocean. This often didn’t occur, and 76 years later these hidden killers remained close to shore and forgotten.
UXOs also pose a heavy threat to local villages in the Solomon Islands: the locals have adapted to the existence of UXOs and have developed methods of fishing with home-made munitions, sourced from the explosives. These UXOs are scattered around the hills of the capital Honiara, and fishermen go in search of them to yield greater fish harvests. This proves detrimental to not only the fishermen that are killed by the unpredictable munitions and the homemade explosives, but to the environment surrounding the shores of the islands: coral reefs are damaged and often fish that are killed in the blast wash away before capture.
These resources dwindle as more and more fishermen source the piles of munitions, driving villagers dangerously further into the unmapped hills around Honiara to discover the explosives. Children looking for fun and adventure have also been caught up in the danger of the explosives, as the unmarked hills and forests conceal these UXO’s. Local timber cutters now live in fear of venturing into the hills, lest they come upon or disturb a UXO, affecting their jobs and income.
Australian technical consultant Nik West expressed shock at the level of Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) contamination when he started working with the Solomon Islands Electricity Authority. He quickly realized that everyone in Honiara considered running a metal detector over the area before digging to be normal.
“We often unearth old bombs, both large and small, in this work. This area surrounding Honiara was hit by everything during the war… The end result is here is a very large degree of ERW in this land. We are always using detectors, but despite that, one of my staff hit a large bomb once with a backhoe and unearthed it. The bomb did not explode, but it terrified the backhoe operator and he ran away home and was scared to come back to work.”
In total, an estimated 59 countries around the world have some level of landmine contamination and tens of millions of the deadly devices remain in the ground and active. The islands in the Pacific most affected by unexploded and dumped munitions are Papua New Guinea, Palau and the Solomon Islands. Even other islands such as Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Tuvalu, Nauru and Kiribati are affected to some degree.
This dangerous legacy of WW2 has continued to impact Pacific communities making it difficult for villages to expand without the risk of running across a stray UXO.
Isabella Porras majors in Documentary Photography at the Queensland College of Art, her work centers around exploring Australian identity, migration and personal life. https://www.instagram.com/bellaeva99/
INTERVIEW WITH ANNIE KWAI
By Catherine Putz
Annie Kwai’s book Solomon Islanders in World War 2: An Indigenous Perspective, brings indigenous wartime contributions and experiences to the forefront. It is the first book of its kind to be written by a Solomon Islander from their own perspective. Most historical books about the battle of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, have been written by Australians or Americans.
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was the catalyst for the United States’ entry into World War II. In the Pacific, the Solomon Islands — particularly Guadalcanal — became the centre of fierce fighting between the Japanese and the United States. The contributions that the Solomon Islanders, who served as coast waters, scouts and labourers made to the war effort are often forgotten in popular discussions.
Prior to WWII, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) had put a coast-watching network in place in the Solomons, as an intelligence gathering platform that used civilians with radios to report any suspicious development in their assigned areas. The Coastwatchers’ work was so significant in winning the Solomons Campaign that US Admiral William Halsey, commander of the South Pacific Area, said that, “the Coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal and Guadalcanal saved the Pacific.”
Does the description of the Islanders as ‘loyal’ to the allied cause oversimplify Islanders’ participation in the war?
The success story of the Coastwatchers has been celebrated extensively. Numerous books have been written about how brave the Coastwatchers were and how significant their work was to the Allied victory in the Solomons Campaign. But details of the foundation of this success – the role played by local Solomon Islanders – have been under-reported and sim- plified. The 23 Coastwatchers in the Solomons archipelago (including Bougainville) relied heavily on the support of the local people. This widespread support is often referred to as simply “loyalty.”
When loyalty is highlighted this way, it raises the question, loyalty to whom, and why? The first part of the question is easy; Solomon Islanders were overwhelmingly loyal to the Coastwatchers and the Allies. Due to this loyalty, Coastwatchers were able to function effectively behind enemy lines, Allied soldiers were saved and the Allies won the campaign. But viewing Islander involvement through the Western lens of “loyalty” simplifies complex motivations. To an extent, the notion of loyalty implies that Islanders were unthinkingly submissive to their colonial “masters,” with a hierarchical connotation that is often racial in nature. But asking “why,” unlocks the complexities of the story that only Solomon Islanders can tell, and that is the side of the story that provides insight into the different motivations for island- er involvement in the war.
Can you describe some of the divergent motivations for Islanders to contribute to the war effort?
Indigenous wartime involvement was inspired by various factors, some pushing through perceived duty or responsibility and some pulling through attraction. There was a sense of familiarity and obligation toward the longstanding British colonial administration, so despite Japanese propaganda casting themselves as anti-colonial liberators, when Japanese troops invaded the Solomons they were immediately regarded as outsiders and “enemies.” But the war was also a very new and exciting event that fuelled the curiosity of local men and prompted them to take part. The easy abundance of food in labour camps at Lunga and elsewhere was another draw, and the attraction of paid wages lured many men from their villages. There was also a sense of prestige attained from joining ranks with the Allied soldiers and sailors as fellow warriors.
But there were more coercive factors that drove local par- ticipation that shouldn’t be ignored. Some Coastwatchers imposed harsh punishments upon mere suspicion of any sympathy for or collaboration with Japanese troops. This at times included casual behaviour by Islanders that was interpreted as suspicious. Punishments imposed by some Coastwatchers included severe beatings unrealistic for the “crime” committed. This was done with the intention to instil fear in the minds of locals, in order to deter contact of any sort with Japanese troops.
How did the war impact post-war administration of the Islands? In what ways did the wartime experience contribute to the post-war anti-colonial movement?
Prior to the war, the colonial government was headquartered on the small island of Tulagi. Upon the Japanese invasion it was moved out of harm’s way, to Auki on Malaita. As soon as American forces landed on the island of Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, the government moved to Lunga. Despite controversy, the post-war administration moved to Honiara (on Guadalcanal) where the capital city is currently located. This was to take advantage of war infrastructure, including Henderson Field (now the international airport), roads, and structures that were readily available. The placement of the capital on Guadalcanal planted the seeds for much of the problems that would eventually erupt into the “Tensions’’ of 1998-2002.
The war itself was an eyeopener for Islanders. It provided Islanders with the opportunity to interact with soldiers of different nationalities and race on a personal level that was not possible under the colonial administration. This made Islanders question their experiences and encounters with white members of the colonial government. For the first time Is- landers were able to drive the same machines that white men drove, share the same food that white soldiers had, and feel a certain degree of empowerment. This exposure aggravated Islanders’ grievances of inequality experienced under the colonial administration. So even during the war, Islanders began to protest for an increase in their wages. From these feelings of inequality and injustice the famous socio-political movement Ma’asina Rule was formed. In the aftermath of the war, the fight for equality and recognition shifted to a fight for political autonomy from Great Britain, and 33 years after the war ended, the Solomon Islands finally gained independence (in 1978).
In the Solomon Islands today, how is the war commemorated? What is the linkage between Islanders’ war memorials and nation-building?
War commemoration in the Solomon Islands has only recently shifted in focus to the remembrance of local participation in the war. Observances have always been the affair of the Americans or the Japanese, but recently the recognition of local involvement in the war was brought into annual commemorative events. This is because there is now more public awareness and education on the roles of Solomon Islanders during the war. Monument building is part of this awareness, and is a significant symbol of unity within a broader contem- porary Solomon Islands society. This sense of unity was initiated by our ancestors during the difficult times of the war and grew throughout the journey to political independence. It is one of the pillars of our patriotism to our country. Islanders’ war memorials, in this regard, are symbolic of a unified sense of nationhood, and gratitude to those who laid the foundation for Solomon Islands sovereignty.
Annie Kwai is a young historian who has recently launched her book “Solomon Islanders in World War II: An Indig- enous perspective”. The book is the first ever written by a Solomon Islander about the events of the Second World War.
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