Memories of War: Micronesians in the Pacific War

Micronesians often liken the Pacific War to a typhoon, one that swept away their former lives and brought dramatic changes to their understandings of the world and their places in it. Whether they spent the war in bomb shelters, in sweet potato fields under the guns of Japanese soldiers, or in their homes on atolls sheltered from the war, Micronesians who survived those years know that their peoples passed through a major historical transformation. Yet Pacific War histories scarcely mention the Islanders across whose lands and seas the fighting waged.

Memories of War sets out to the fill that historical gap by presenting the missing voices of Micronesians and by viewing those years from their perspectives. The focus is on Micronesian remembrances—the ritual commemorations, features of the landscape, stories, dances, and songs that keep their memories of the conflict alive. The inclusion of numerous and extensive interviews and songs is an important feature of this book, allowing Micronesians to speak for themselves about their experiences. In addition, they also reveal distinctively Micronesian cultural memories of war.

Memories of War preserves powerful and poignant memories for Micronesians; it also demonstrates to students of history and culture the extent to which cultural practices and values shape the remembrance of personal experience.

• Suzanne Falgout, Author

  Suzanne Falgout is professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu.

• Lin Poyer, Author

  Lin Poyer, professor emeritus at the University of Wyoming, is a cultural anthropologist who has written about Micronesian lives during and after the Second World War.

• Laurence Marshall Carucci, Author

• This splendid record of Micronesian wartime recollections, frozen in print, may become more canonical than had they remained as living songs and dances—but then, only time and further memory-work will tell.
  —Journal of Pacific History (44:2, September 2009)