15. After invading the small Pacific island of Nauru in 1942, the Japanese imprisoned, enslaved, and killed much of the native population of the Australian protectorate
In the course of World War II, the small island of Nauru, strategically positioned in the Pacific Ocean, was occupied by the Japanese Empire. Invaded on August 26, 1942, the tiny island stood no chance against their industrialized military might and quickly fell. Despite earlier evacuations of essential personnel, five Australians, including the island’s administrator Lieutenant Colonel F.R. Chalmers, remained behind on the island to assist the local population. These individuals were initially imprisoned as POWs, before being later executed by the Japanese prior to liberation. In May 1946, Lieutenant Hiromi Nakayama would be sentenced to death for their unlawful killings.
The local population, themselves prisoners of war en masse as residents of an Australian protectorate, were treated equally poorly. Historically serving as a leper colony, in at least one recorded instance 39 afflicted persons were rounded up by the Japanese, loaded onto a boat, and subsequently sunk at sea as a method of execution. In 1943, 1,200 native Nauruans, representing almost 70% of the local population, were forcibly deported to the Chuuk Islands to serve as manual laborers. Less than two-thirds, just 737, would survive their captivity and return to the liberated island at the end of the war.