The Typhoon of War: Micronesian Experiences of the Pacific War [Hardcover]

Lin Poyer (Author), Suzanne Falgout (Author), Laurence Marshall Carucci (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0824821688 | ISBN-13: 978-0824821685 | Publication Date: January 2001

World War II was a watershed event for the people of the former Japanese colonies of Micronesia. The Japanese military build-up, the conflict itself, and the American occupation and control of the conquered islands brought rapid and dramatic changes to Micronesian life. Whether they spent the war in caves and bomb shelters, in sweet potato fields under armed Japanese guard, or in their own homes, Micronesians who survived those years recognize that their peoples underwent a major historical transformation. Like a typhoon, the war swept away a former life.

The Typhoon of War combined archival research and oral history culled from more than three hundred Micronesian survivors to offer a comparative history of the war in Micronesia. It is the first book to develop Islander perspectives on a topic still dominated by military histories that all but ignore the effects of wartime operations on indigenous populations. The authors explore the significant cultural meanings of the war for Island peoples, for the events of the war are the foundation on which Micronesians have constructed their modern view of themselves, their societies, and the wider world. Their recollections of those tumultuous years contain a wealth of detail about wartime activities, local conditions, and social change, making this an invaluable reference for anyone interested in twentieth-century Micronesia. Photographs, maps, and a detailed chronology will help readers situate Micronesian experiences within the broader context of the Pacific War.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lin Poyer is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming. Suzanne Falgout is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii--West Oahu. Laurence Marshall Carucci is professor of anthropology at Montana State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 493 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Hawaii Pr (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824821688
• ISBN-13: 978-0824821685
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,478,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Things I Always Wanted to Know, May 9, 2001

By 

Ronald Mayo "Fishguy" (Lopez Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Typhoon of War: Micronesian Experiences of the Pacific War (Hardcover)

The Typhoon of War preserves important information about a people at a time that has received little attention from historians or anthropologist. For me it has opened doors I never even knew were there. As a kid living in Micronesia right after World War II, I didn't conceive that the "natives" would be anything other than eternally grateful for the American presence. I recognized differences between the people of Guam and Truk but it was mainly that some spoke better English, or were darker, and some lived in better houses. That some of them might actually look back to Japanese times as "better" was unthinkable. As I grew older, I began to perceive that perhaps we could have done a better job as saviors/colonizers than we did. Now in retirement I collect books about Micronesia and occasionally travel there. I guess I'm still trying to understand better this place I've been. The Typhoon of War is the book I've been waiting for to do just that.

And why should you read this book if you have no interest in Micronesians. It's thick, dense and won't keep you up all night. Here's why; to help you understand how we in America deal with other places (Viet Nam, Bosnia, Africa) and how we might improve our success by actually trying to understand what the people living there think.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Typhoon is a wonderful piece of historiography, April 9, 2001

By 

Bruce M. Petty (New Plymouth, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Typhoon of War: Micronesian Experiences of the Pacific War (Hardcover)

The three authors of The Typhoon Of War, Poyer, Falgout, and Carrucci, have done an excellent job of researching and writing a wonderful piece of seamless historiography. Not only that, but they have written on a subject that has been left relatively untouched for too long, the role of Micronesians in World War II, on whose land the Japanese, the Americans, and their allies fought their war in the Pacific.

A multitude of books have been written on the subject of World War II in the Pacific, and new volumes continue to be produced every year. Yet, few of these hundreds of books have ever devoted more than a paragraph or two, if that, to what happened to the native people who have inhabited this far flung universe of islands for thousands of years. The Typhoon Of War, has corrected that oversight. For those readers, both professional and lay, who are constantly looking for new insights into the greatest and bloodiest conflict in the history of man will find more here than they might in the multitude of generic texts that have reproduced the same general chronology, ad nauseam, over the past fifty years.

I don't know any of the authors, but I am familiar with some of their individual earlier works from which I assume sprang this collective effort. Their bibliography is likewise impressive. They have bypassed little that has gone before them in what up until now has been a rather obscure area of research for all but a few academics. Having lived in the Mariana Islands for five years myself, and having done my own research in the area of World War II oral history amongst the islanders, I see that the authors have also used a variety of unpublished, yet valuable sources, such as the collection of oral histories collected in the 1980s and early 1990s by researchers at the University of Guam, Dr. Dirk Ballendorf, Dr. Don Shuster, and Wakako Higuchi.

Much of what I have read in The Typhoon Of War has confirmed what I have concluded from my own research, primarily, that the typhoon of war that swept the islands of Micronesia was the most defining experience of these people since the cataclysmic coming of the Spanish more than 350 years ago.