Abstract
Historical information on the relationship between the 67th garrison of the Japanese Imperial Navy and local women on Nauru Island is sparse. The central objective of this article is to show the Nauruan experiences from the perspective of gender. The author will describe the ways in which the women’s identities were undermined and weakened via the deprivation of their traditional culture and a weakening of strong ties among Nauruans. The experiences of the occupation by Nauruans as well as other Asians and Pacific Islanders, such as Chinese and Gilbertese, on the island are also varied. The data on these experiences comes from interviews with several persons from Nauru and Japan in the early 2000s. In addition, official documents provided by the National Archives of Australia, as well as recently discovered sources in Japan, will be examined in the second chapter. The author compares such primary data with official documents, while analyzing different—sometimes conflicting—sources in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the issue. The final section sheds light on the background of a case involving the killing of Nauruan lepers. It touches on state propaganda during the prewar and war periods in Japan and substantiates claims that Japanese behavior towards lepers in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria was consistent. Treatment, however, was different on Nauru and on Ocean Island, as shown in the experiences of Nauruan women with the massacre of lepers.
