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At Halavo Seaplane Base, Islanders teach black American Seabees (in shirts) how to make thatch for shading cooler barracks.
Four Fais men sort newly acquired American money with advice from U.S. Marines. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Local coastwatchers on guard at their post overlooking Noumea harbor receive a visit from a "liberty party" of sailors from the USS Enterprise.
Major C. V. Widdy, chief manager for Levers Pacific Plantations before the war, gives a potential labor corps recruit a cursory medical examination
Two young Islanders wait on table in a military mess. One serviceman pours out a dose of Quinine Sulfate
After the Americans recaptured the island, a Pharmacists Mate treats the infected hand of a young Chamorro girl in a Navy dispensary constructed of local material
The war directed medical attention to several endemic Pacific diseases, especially yaws and malaria. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Navy nurses give a yaws injection to a Micronesian child. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
New public health measures were developed during the war to reduce massive troop casualties from malaria. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Gift-giving druing the war flowed two ways, and many Islanders recall the presents they gave to Allied and Japanese servicemen. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
In return, "in the name of Admiral Nimitz," the Naval officeres present Islanders with a pile of military supplies including cigarettes, cigars, spools of thread, knives, and caramel candy.
Naptali Bea (left) and Ben Avualvulu (right) enjoy "C" ration biscuits given to them by U.S. troops. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Islanders and sailors from the USS Nicholas exchange grass skirts for cigarettes. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Members of the Fijian 3rd Battalion, dressed in traditional dance costume, honor officers of the Allied forces with a kava (yaqona) ceremony. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Fais Islanders try out a new custom: saluting the American flag. [See "more images" below for complete caption]