Ninety five years ago Aotearoa New Zealand picked up its last and now only colony.
Tokelau’s three atolls are populated by 1600 people, all of them New Zealand citizens, 3400 kilometres north of Aotearoa. With no airport, anchorage or port, the possession is hardly strategic although its northern atoll, Atafu had its day and who knows, might yet again.
The possession has an exclusive economic zone of 318.990 square kilometres rich in tuna and, of late, increasingly visited by Chinese fishing boats.
Tokelau had a modest role in World War Two with the Imperial Japanese within 2000 kilometres of Atafu. While the Japanese bombed Funafuti (in what is now Tuvalu), Atafu was mostly left alone. Allied flying boats did, however, routinely touch down on Atafu’s vast lagoon.
Atafu’s more significant wartime place came as the United States developed its Loran (long range navigation) system to aid aircraft and ships to navigate the Pacific. Loran needed a base on Atafu, a ‘slave’ base as it was not a primary transmitter on what was known as the Phoenix Loran Chain.
American Roger Kehm was part of the operation, including the construction on Atafu by US Coast Guard Unit 93 in 1944.
“ I arrived just after the trees and jungle had been cleared and came ashore on an (landing craft) along with all the construction supplies and stores,” Kehm writes.
The station consisted of seven Quonset huts and a steel tower.
After it was built Kehm and the other operators stayed, a complement of around 25 people. They made a bar and a ping pong table and a still: “The cooks had a large supply of dried apples, raisins, sugar and yeast. And in the tropical heat the stuff was cheerfully bubbling away three days later.”
Each morning they raised the US flag: “One fateful day, the skipper, who has been listening to shortwave news in his Quonset, suddenly burst out of the Quonset and command a coastie near the flag pole to ‘half mast the flag, President Roosevelt has died’. A period of mourning was observed there in the South Pacific theatre of operations at Unit #93.”
Around the base of the flag there was a message written in the newly laid concrete: “instead of saying “Semper Paratus - Always Ready”, it said “Semper Paratus - The Bastards Forgot Us!’” They were not complaining: “Even though isolated duty, Loran service in the South Pacific during World War Two was good duty.”
He says there were around 400 locals on Atafu at the time.
“They were extremely friendly and helpful to the Coast Guard. All of us “Coasties” were adopted by a family in the village—we were known as having a ‘true friend’.”
He says his family was Aluia, Pua and their daughter Meliani.
“They were probably in their mid to upper 30’s. They were wonderful to me. As friends I tried to give them gifts that they could use. The natives of course were barefoot and we decided that we would not give them shoes for when we were gone they would not have access to replace them,” Kehm wrote.
“We gave the soap, other toiletries, shorts, dungarees, t-shirts and all sorts of practical things that they could use. They wore lava lavas for the most part. The lava lava was a “skirt”, a cloth worn around the waist and about mid-calf length. They had a method of gathering and folding at the waist like we would wear a bath towel. The women wore “Mother Hubbard” dresses. I sent home for a quantity of colorful yard goods to give to my friend for lava lavas.”
Pua washed his clothes.
“I would often go down to the village after a 24 hour watch to sleep—it was hot during the day and a bit more quiet down in the village at my friends open thatched roof house.
“I would lie on a mat, covered with a light sheet and a pillow. Many times Pua would have Miliani or one of the other children in the village fan me to sort of keep me cool. They were really “true” friends and we in the CG were united in our resolve to not take advantage of the truly good people.
“I would often go down to Aluia and Pua’s house on Sunday morning—it was across from the native church and listen to the singing of the hymns. They were usually familiar ones that we all sang. The people were good singers and they sang loud and clear. That was always a pleasant time on Sunday morning.”
Kehm had harsh words for the Sāmoan pastor, saying he was “strictly no good as an individual”.
The Americans would not attend his services, knowing that kind of person he was: “He acted like a little king to the people and treated them very badly. I believe the denomination was of the Church of England and he was sent to Atafu by them. He was a bad man!
“We would send our leftover food each meal to the village for them to share—however they would want to divide it up. We learned that the Missionary did not take his turn—he got it every other day! He was a bad man!”
The pastor features in a 1965 book, Sāmoa – a Teacher's Tale – by George Irwin. He says Atafu has a submarine base – he was wrong. Using the racist language of the time, he said there were no “half-caste children” left behind by the Americans: “The ingenious pastor of Atafu had told the girls on the island that, if they went into the bushes with Americans, they would give birth to monkeys. I later stayed with this pastor and was not surprised to find he was Sāmoan.” Kehm said once a week the village would have a dance.
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