World War II

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Until World War II, the New Hebrides remained a strange but sleepy colonial backwater for both Britain and France. But Japanese expansion in the 1940s suddenly thrust the New Hebrides into the heart of the Pacific war. Over a hundred thousand American GIs were posted to the island of Santo from where they battled in Guadlecanal and elsewhere in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Among them was the PT boat commander John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Though the New Hebrides were spared the physical trauma of war–Japanese bombing claimed only one fatality on Santo, a cow–the social and economic impact of the American military presence was considerable. Luganville on Santo–until then a small outpost accessible only by steamer– was transformed almost overnight into a GI city, with an elaborate transportation and communications infrastructure. The distinctive mark of World War II military architecture–the Quonset hut –still dots the town.

More important, the sudden inflow of goods and men changed New Hebrideans’ perceptions of the world. Material hardware which literally fell from the sky (thanks to the US Air Force) rekindled a cargo cult — a religious movement based on gifts sent from heaven.

Other New Hebrideans, without viewing the Americans as mythic saviors or godlike figures, were nevertheless impressed with the American spirit of backslapping amiability. This was in sharp contrast with the colonial, plantation and missionary mold of whites they had experienced to that point. Particularly impressive was the sight of black GIs in uniform performing military tasks as full-scale soldiers.

Though the Americans physically left the New Hebrides, they left an important legacy behind: a taste for treasure and freedom. Though the Condominium arrangement would long insulate the New Hebrides from the spirit of decolonization that would soon sweep the Third World, the seeds of independence were planted. In response to the changing international environment, a renewed rivalry would emerge in the New Hebrides. This time, however, would not pit only the British against the French but New Hebridians against each other.