A Last Secret 5

Ringing alarm bells

It was tempting for the men to believe they were as far from war as it was then possible to be. For Jones though, 400 kilometres to the north was Jaluit, a strategic naval and air base for Japan, and part of their Marshall Islands territory. The Marshalls were one of the earliest places in the Pacific to be visited by Europeans - Spaniards made landfall in 1526. In 1878 Germany created a coaling station on Jaluit. Eight years later the Marshalls became a German protectorate. With the Great War Japan occupied the Marshalls (and the Marianas and Carolines). After the war the League of Nations gave the mandate over the Marshalls to Japan which set about to isolate the islands from the world. 

Part of a 1921 National Geographic showing the area between the Japanese mandated Marshall Islands and the Gilbert Islands (lower right)