Japanese occupation of Nauru
| Date | 26 August 1942 – 13 September 1945 |
|---|---|
| Location | Nauru, Southern Central Pacific Ocean |
| Participants | Empire of Japan, Nauru, Australia, New Zealand, US |
| Outcome | Japanese surrender |
The Japanese occupation of Nauru was the period of three years (26 August 1942 – 13 September 1945) during which Nauru, a Pacific island under Australian administration, was occupied by the Japanese military as part of its operations in the Pacific War during World War II. With the onset of the war, the islands that flanked Japan's South Seas possessions became of vital concern to Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and in particular to the Imperial Navy, which was tasked with protecting Japan's outlying Pacific territories.
The Japanese hoped to exploit the island's phosphate resources, and to build up their military defences in the area. They were unable to relaunch phosphate mining operations, but succeeded in transforming Nauru into a powerful stronghold, which United States forces chose to bypass during their reconquest of the Pacific. The most important infrastructure built by the Japanese was an airfield, which was the target of repeated Allied air strikes.
The war deeply affected the local population. The Japanese enforced a harsh regime, particularly on Chinese labourers who they saw as being at the bottom of the racial hierarchy; forced labour and brutal treatment were commonplace. They decided to deport the majority of Nauru's indigenous population to the Truk islands, hundreds of miles away, where mortality was extremely high. Still overpopulated with troops and imported labourers, the island was subject to food shortages, which worsened as the Allies' island-hopping strategy left Nauru completely cut off.
Although effectively neutralised by Allied air and sea control, the Japanese garrison did not surrender until eleven days after the official surrender of Japan.
Mining operations on Nauru began in 1906, at which time it was part of the German colonial empire. The island had some of the world's largest and highest quality deposits of phosphate, a key component in fertiliser, making it a strategically important resource on which agriculture in Australia and New Zealand depended. During the First World War, Nauru came under the control of the British Crown as a trusteeship of the League of Nations, effectively administered by the Australian government. The British Phosphate Commission, in charge of mining operations, joined with Australian officials and Christian missionaries to establish paternalistic management of the Nauruan people, who showed only limited interest in mining employment, and generally continued to rely on their traditional subsistence activities of fishing and agriculture. The BPC instead imported large numbers of indentured workers, mainly Chinese and Pacific islanders.
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