Nissan Island (also Green Island or Sir Charles Hardy Island) is the largest of the Green Islands of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. It is located at , about 200 km east of Rabaul on New Britain and about 200 km north-west of Bougainville. The island is administered under Nissan Rural LLG in the

Autonomous Region of Bougainville Bougainville ( ; ; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil''), officially the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Tok Pisin: ''Otonomos Region bilong Bogenvil''), is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. The largest island is Bougainville Island, while the re ...

History

British and American

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

vessels visited the island in the nineteenth century for food, water and wood. The first on record was the ''Addison'' in 1837, and the last was ''Palmetto'' in 1881. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in the

Battle of the Green Islands The Battle of the Green Islands or Operation Squarepeg was fought from 15 to 20 February 1944, between Imperial Japan and Allied forces from the New Zealand 3rd Division and the United States. Undertaken after landings to secure lodgments on N ...

, US and New Zealand troops recaptured several islands from heavily outnumbered Imperial Japanese forces. The New Zealand 3rd Division landed on Nissan Island on 15 February 1944 as part of the

Solomon Islands campaign The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, ...

to isolate the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul. Shortly after the landings two airfields were constructed on the island.

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

was a supply officer on the base, and is remembered as being popular with the indigenous inhabitants. There was also a

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the war ...

base on another island nearby. There were approximately allied troops on the island at that time. Much of the indigenous population was removed to Guadalcanal for about seven to nine months. After that time the front line had moved closer to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and the island was no longer needed in the war effort.

References

Islands of Papua New Guinea Geography of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Solomon Islands (archipelago) {{PapuaNewGuinea-island-stub

History

See also

References