Editing History of Nauru (section)

==World War II==
[[File:Nauru Island under attack by Liberator bombers of the Seventh Air Force..jpg|left|thumb|220px|Nauru Island under attack by [[B-24 Liberator]] bombers of the [[Seventh Air Force]]]]

{{Main|Japanese occupation of Nauru}}
{{further|Pacific Islands home front during World War II}}

During World War II, Nauru was subject to significant damage from both Axis (German and Japanese) and Allied forces.

On 6 and 7 December 1940 the [[Nazi German]] [[auxiliary cruiser]]s [[German auxiliary cruiser Orion|''Orion'']] and [[German auxiliary cruiser Komet|''Komet'']] sank [[German attacks on Nauru|four merchant ships]]. On the next day, ''Komet'' shelled Nauru's phosphate mining areas, oil storage depots, and the shiploading cantilever.<ref name="PIM41-2">{{cite web| last = | first = | work= XI(7) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= How Nauru Took the Shelling  |date =14 February 1941|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-316032928/view?partId=nla.obj-316050130#page/n36/mode/1up| accessdate=28 September 2021}}</ref>  The attacks seriously disrupted phosphate supplies to Australia and New Zealand (mostly used for munition and fertiliser purposes.)<ref name=PacMag/>

[[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] troops [[Operation Ry|occupied]] Nauru on 26 August 1942,<ref>Lundstrom, John B., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xtaTS-POl-UC The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign]'', Naval Institute Press, 1994, p. 175.</ref> and executed 7 Europeans.<ref name="PIM45-10">{{cite web| last =| first = | work= XVI(3) Pacific Islands Monthly |title=  Nauru Officials Murdered By Japs|date =16 October 1945|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-317552084/view?partId=nla.obj-317560904#page/n7/mode/1up| accessdate=29 September 2021}}</ref> The native Nauruans [[Japanese occupation of Nauru|were badly treated by the occupying forces]]. On one occasion, thirty-nine people with [[leprosy]] were reputedly loaded onto boats which were towed out to sea and sunk. The Japanese troops built two airfields on Nauru, which were bombed for the first time on 25 March 1943, preventing food supplies from being flown to Nauru.<ref name="PIM1946-6">{{cite web| last = | first = | work= XVI(11) Pacific Islands Monthly |title=Interesting Sidelights on Jap Occupation of Nauru|date =18 June 1946|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-317564791/view?partId=nla.obj-317661362#page/n50/mode/1up| accessdate=29 September 2021}}</ref> In 1943 the Japanese deported 1,200 Nauruans to work as labourers in the [[Chuuk islands]].<ref name=PacMag>Haden, J. D. 2000. [http://166.122.164.43/archive/2000/April/04-03-19.htm Nauru: a middle ground in World War II] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208125727/http://166.122.164.43/archive/2000/April/04-03-19.htm |date=8 February 2012 }} ''Pacific Magazine'' Retrieved 5 May 2006</ref>

Nauru was liberated from the Japanese on 13 September 1945, when Captain Soeda, the commander of all the Japanese troops on Nauru, surrendered the island to the Royal Australian Navy and Army. This surrender was accepted by Brigadier J. R. Stevenson, who represented Lieutenant General [[Vernon Sturdee]], the commander of the [[First Australian Army]], on board the warship [[HMAS Diamantina (K377)|HMAS ''Diamantina'']]<ref>''The Times'', 14 September 1945</ref><ref name="PIM45-10"/> Arrangements were made to repatriate from Chuuk the 745 Nauruans who survived Japanese captivity there.<ref name="PIM1950-6">{{cite web| last =| first = | work= XX(10) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= Only 745 Returned|date =1 May 1950|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-322270499/view?partId=nla.obj-322562760#page/n82/mode/1up| accessdate=30 September 2021}}</ref>  They were returned to Nauru by the BPC ship ''Trienza'' on 1 January 1946.<ref>Garrett, J. 1996. ''Island Exiles''. ABC. {{ISBN|0-7333-0485-0}}. pp. 176–181</ref>