Micronesia's Wartime Generation: Experiences and Memories

In Micronesia, the years of World War II produced dramatic political, economic, and lifestyle shifts as Islanders experienced attacks and invasion, followed by a transition in governance. After more than three decades of colonial rule by Japan, the islands came under American control, first through military occupation administered by the U.S. Navy, then as a U.N. Trust Territory. This article examines how the impact of this historical moment—the transition in power due to military conquest—forever altered the lives of the generation that came to adulthood during the war years, and how that transition is encoded in memory.