Book Review: Makatea by Moana Moeka'a

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    Reviewed by:
    Nicholas Hoare

    Makatea. By Moana Moeka'a. Te Kapua Publications, Rarotonga, 2021. 84pp. NZ Price: $60. ISBN: 9789821011549.

    IN TERMS of little-known war stories in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand and its wider imperial realm, the World War II labour scheme involving Cook Islanders being sent to the French Polynesian phosphate island of Makatea to prevent New Zealand's war-time agriculture industry from collapse, must rate highly. The scheme was devised by New Zealand government officials and the British Phosphate Commissioners following the bombardment and subsequent fall of phosphate-rich Nauru, Banaba, and Christmas Island to the Imperial Japanese in the opening months of the Pacific War. Panicking about the implications of losing access to so much phosphate rock and the knock-on effects of under-fertilized pasture, officials turned their attention to the Pacific's last remaining phosphate deposits under Allied control, those of Makatea in Eastern Polynesia, situated at a safe distance from the expanding Japanese frontier. However, by mid-1942, Operation Bobcat had begun and most French Polynesians preferred working for the Americans in Bora Bora than on a poorly managed phosphate mine. It was thus suggested that perhaps men from the neighbouring Cook Islands could fill the labour shortage, especially as the Americans had not yet arrived to destabilize local markets.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages161-162
    Number of pages2
    Volume58
    No.1
    Specialist publicationNew Zealand Journal of History
    Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

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