The Pacific War of 1942–5 was no ‘Fatal Impact’ on Pacific peoples and cultures but, like first contact with foreigners from the eighteenth century, it was fatal to many individual Indigenous people and, unsurprisingly, to thousands of the belligerents.1 The war’s effects differed greatly, depending on whether islands became sites of combat or of rear-line support. Almost all of Polynesia remained behind the front lines, where islands hosting military installations experienced a few giddy years of unparalleled prosperity, a marked contrast to the battlegrounds of much of Micronesia and western Melanesia, where people suffered deprivation, fear, and loss. Lasting impacts of the war have been varied, subtle, and less susceptible to quantification.