 The national broadcasting company and its facilitated stations presents the Pacific story. It is the story of the Pacific, the drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest seed, where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of keeping the peace. This is a documentary account of the situation in the Pacific, of the men and events which are today influencing world affairs for generations to come. B.G. Island. I say is your name Kermalys? Yes. Blake is my name. This is Dr. Cowdery. Are you a doctor? A real doctor? Yes. You have just come to B.G.? Oh, it's been a few weeks now. Good, good. You at the medical school in Suber? Yes. Dr. Cowdery was good enough to come up here to Laotoka with me to help me find a guide. Guide? Yes. You know that gold has been discovered up near the North? Yes. Well, I'd like to hire you to guide me up into the gold field. Me? Yes. The people here in Laotoka say you know that country around the world. Well, yes. Well, a great deal of gold has been taken out up there. And it would mean some money to you. No, no, no. I don't think so. You're not interested in the gold? Gold is good, maybe. Well, about all we'll have to do if we get up into the gold country is take out a claim. Can't be so very far from here. No, no, no. I have plenty of bananas and coconut. Plenty of maize and rice and sugarcane. Cowdery, does he mean it? Well, I think he does. Look, look, Kamini, all you're doing here is sitting outside your house singing to yourself. If you go up to the floor with me, you'll get much gold. No, no, no. I stay here. Since Jesus came into my heart. I can't believe it, Cowdery. He might as well try to get somebody else. Yes, thank you, sir. Well, come on, let's go. Yes. Are you going back to the medical school in Suva, Dr. Cowdery? As soon as I get Mr. Blake to your fix, sir. Yes. Good. Since Jesus came into my heart. A couple of days later, we found a guide for Blake and they went up into the gold country. I returned to Suva. I thought about Kamini, tall, muscular, a superior physical type. And I talked about him as Dr. Weldon. They are remarkable people, the Fijians. You know, I've never seen such a happy people. Well, they've got everything. And if they had their way, they'd laugh and live and sing songs. I had come to the Fiji Islands to help train Fijians to be what we called NMPs, Native Medical Practitioners. There were few white doctors in the island and there was need for medical help to treat the half million people of the island. The Fijians are a healthy people country. Yes, I've noticed. They're a mixture of the black male amnesian and the lighter polynesian. That's why they have high intelligence along with their superstitions and their savagery. You know, you hardly realize that they can be savvy. Well, actually, Cowdery, some of the grandparents or great-grandparents of the people they're working with here at school were cannibals. Well, they've made enormous strides in the state of a few generations. Yes, they have. A lot of credit for that must go to the missionaries. Well, yes. Nearly every native is a Christian. That's why many of them are always seeing him. Oh, that explains it. But, as you know, when the white man brought in Christianity, he also brought in disease. Hysteria, tuberculosis, mesm, even neprosy. Yes, I know that, Dr. Wilder. They had, of course, their own diseases. Blackwater fever and other things. So, although the people here are fairly healthy, at the same time, they're plagued not only with their own diseases, but also with ours. That's why our work here training NMPs is so important. The Phoegeans who came to the medical school were alert, quick, eager. Everything they did showed their intelligence. For admission, all they had to have was the equivalent of a good high school education. The NMP course was four years of anatomy and surgery. There is a letter for you, Dr. Caldera. Letter? Thank you. Oh, it's Blake. Dear hell, I've been up here around Tabua now for six months, and the amount of gold being taken out up here is fabulous. I'd make a horseback guess that something like five million dollars worth of gold will be taken out this year. Of course, my part of that is going to be comparatively small. But I'm getting squared around now for a bigger operation. Things are going along fairly smoothly. There's a little trouble here, as you would expect. But I'm going to get out with some kind of a state. Wherever you are. I used to go down to the beach there in Suva and look out over the Pacific to Zealand, more than a thousand miles to the south. Australia, more than 1,500 miles to the southeast. Samoa, 500 miles to the northeast. I used to look out over the Pine Harbor in Suva, big enough to hold a battle fleet. Between the barrier reef, corals, and the shore, many ships riding at anchor. Lita Levo here is the largest of all the Fiji islands, Dr. Cowdery. I used to talk with one of the NMP students. I was born up in Sigatoka. He was as proud of his hometown as any youth in the United States is of his. But I always wanted to come down here to the capital of Suva. Do you like it here, Dr. Cowdery? Well, yes, I like it here. It's a different world for me, though. A different world, yes. In the months to come, I travel to most of the 80 Fiji islands that are inhabited, to the newer level, and to Kandavo, and to all the others. On my way back, I stopped off in the Tovua Gold Country to see Blake. Mr. Blake is gone. How long has he been gone? Long time now. Where did he go? Nobody knows. Nobody knows? No. Why did he leave? Trouble, maybe. Oh. But what have you explained? Is it shutdown? No. Still working. That's about all I ever found out about Blake. This was my first personal brush with the dark side of the Fijians. It was my first index of the side of the Fijians, about which I knew so little. And I was to learn so much. I headed back for Suva. Too loud, Toca. I heard a familiar voice and a familiar song. It was Kamali. I went up to him. I remember you. You are the doctor. That's right. When I finished my work in school, I want to come to Suva. Suva is an important city. Biggest city in the island. Oh, it's not for that. I want to go to your school and become a native medical practitioner. You do? Yes, it's what I want to do. My mother died from a fever. My brother is sick with a yawn. He's very bad now. How much longer must you go to school? Two years. Then I'm coming to Suva. Well, keep in touch with me, Kamali. Thank you. Yes, I will. I looked him over from head to foot as he talked. A magnificent specimen. Tall. Powerful. Dark skin. Crisp hair. Deep-set eyes. A modern man. Only a few generations removed from savagery. Yet interested in the humanitarian. He goes to devote his life to helping others. Back at the medical school, I plunge into the work with renewed vigor. We are going to add a pathological laboratory and a bacteriological laboratory, Kamali. That's excellent. It's a really great deal out here. And the Fijians are ready for this kind of work. Excuse me, please. But this word has just come. Yes. Mmm. Listen to this, Kamali. The situation in Europe has been complicated by the intervention of foreign nations in the Spanish Civil War. Germany and Italy are aiding the phalanges. And Russia is aiding the loyalists. So far, Britain has not become embroiled. If Britain becomes involved, then we are involved. Yeah. Yes. Are we going to get into war? Probably not now. But it's coming. From this time on, when I stood on the beach and looked out over the seas, I knew that the sea could never keep war from affecting us. From this time on, we watched closely the trend of events in Europe and the growing tension in the Pacific. I came to understand more clearly how the Fijians were tied to the outside world. You see, until now, we've exported just about all our sugar to New Zealand. Now, we're exporting, we're shipping more and more of it to Canada. But rising should at times hard work, and the Fijians have no necessity to work hard. It was the same old story. So we've got to bring in Indian coley labour. But the Fijians are good agriculturalists aren't they? Yes. Excellent, but they don't care about working on the sugar plantations. That is as hard as the Indians do. Then the Indians are stiff competitors for the Fijians. Yes, the Indians are hard working and they're thrifty. And after they worked a while on the sugar plantations and saved up enough money, they leave the plantations and rise right and caught even goats for themselves. But what worry the authorities is that the Indians are beginning to have political ambitions. You know, there are almost as many Indians here in the Fijies as they are Fijians. But difficult as this situation was within the Fijies. It was overshadowed by the momentous events outside the islands. The Japanese had attacked the Chinese outside the Fijians. They had, yes. It started in the Pacific. Well, it's still a good many thousand miles from us here. May as well be on our doorstep. It's only a matter of time until it's here. So, Kamali, so you did come to Suva? Yes, I've come to go to school. Your city is about becoming a practitioner? Yes, I'm here ready to start. Here are my papers. Fine. Well, come along. Let's see what we can do about it. Kamali showed an extraordinary aptitude for medicine. Sometimes as I watched him vaccinating or giving hypodermics, I marveled. Fingers as death as those of a violinist. Gentle, sensitive. A jolly sense of humor, music brimming and bubbling out like water. And yet with a tide that was tied to a thousand and ten thousand years of darkness. Dr. Calvary, which doctors cannot be right, Kamali? Of course not, Kamali. Of course they cannot. It is ridiculous. Quinine will do more for a person with malaria than any witch doctor. I know. They have a strong influence though, Dr. Calvary. We could teach him and the other P.G.ans how to treat the sick, but this part of them we could never touch. We train them how to fight infection, the importance of plenitude, how to reduce factors, how to deliver babies. One dark night when we ran duty together, one of the boys brought a message. Britain has declared war on Germany. It has come. The Germans are marching into Poland, in France, and Britain's supposed to declare war on Germany. We will have to go to war now, Dr. Calvary. Yes, if Britain's in the war, then we're in the war. Will we have to fight? Yes, I think we will. We kept tabs on the progress of the war in Europe. We shuddered with England through the terrible month of 1940, through Dunkirk and the Blitz, and the desperate days had followed. A contingent of New Zealand troops is going to land here tomorrow, Calvary. All seven seas in our battlefield between us and the enemy. Yes. Let us hope we do not also have to fight Japan. Yes. The next day, Camelie went with me down to the waterfront. A fine-looking group, some of New Zealand's best. They're wonderful. Yes, wonderful. I knew from the way Camelie regarded those New Zealand troops that he would volunteer the first chance they got. Immediately when PG volunteers were asked for her, he came to me. I want to join, Dr. Calvary. Or your only halfway through your NMP Corps. I want to join. You mean in the medical corps? No, I just want to be a soldier. I can finish my work in medicine later. PG and the team came from every one of the 80 inhabited islands. Strong, intelligent men. I watched them train through the month of 1940 at 41. They became the officers of the PG and the Ducati. They and the PG and in battle dress was something to see. It's here, Calvary. It's here. I've been hoping all along that it would not come. But all the time I knew it would. The PG's have now assumed new importance. Strategic importance. We are the outpost for the defense of New Zealand and Australia. Do you think the Japanese will get as far as this? Well, Britain is crippled in the Pacific. The US is crippled. The Japanese are already driving down Minaya into the Indies and Eastwood toward us. If they take our islands here, they'll be able to cut off supplies from reaching Australia and New Zealand from the US without a long roundabout tour. If the PG's held, the American base 500 miles to the northeast in Samoa would be in danger. It might be cut off from reinforcements and supplies. We worked like mad. Reinforcements were coming, but we knew it was a race with the Japanese. Then, early one morning, I was awakened. In the harbor were American ships, transports and men of war. Silver was farmed with American troops. New Zealand troops, PG and troops. In no time, the Americans were picking up PG and words. Hiya, boy! Hula! Hula! Is it hula? It's a fast family. Hula means hello. Hula, boy! Hula! Hula! Hula! Some hula vanaca. And what was that, man? Some hula vanaca. That means, oh, God bless you. Oh! Hey, some hula vanaca, kid. Some hula vanaca. What does that word say? Here? What does that mean? Here? Kamali was trained for commando operations. And when his outfit moved out, I went with him. The Americans had taken Guadalcanal. We landed there, and then moved across the channel to Cape Torokino, Empress Augusta Bay and Bougainville. There are something like 50,000 Japanese deployed on this island. They're short of rations. Our mission is to find out first how long their rations will last, and second what the Japanese commander is up to. The honor to carry out this dangerous mission has fallen to us. The first battalion of the PG Infantry Regiment. You've been trained for jungle combat, and with your own natural skill, you should be more than a match for the Japanese. We will move out into the enemy country and establish an outpost at Ibu on the other side of the island, 10 miles from the strong Japanese position at Numa Numa. Any questions? The transformation in the PG troops as they moved out into the enemy held country was amazing. Covered with ferns and brush, they became part of the jungle. But more than that, they slipped into the jungle with an eagerness, a sense of sureness, with a certain restrained delight that told me there were, indeed, only a few generations removed from their cannibal ancestors. Their skill and their deadliness in jungle operations did not fully impress me until later, when we received word by radio that they had penetrated the Japanese lines and had established their stronghold in the jungle, in the Japanese rear at Ibu. Dr. Cowdery, I want you to go with me by air to Ibu. There were just three of us. Almost the instant we took off at Cape Todokino, we were over enemy territory. It's jungle below, is there, doctor? Yes. And it's filled with Japanese. We'll be over Ibu in about 15 minutes. Have you seen the new landings of their pilots? Yes, sir. They're very small. They huge it out in remarkably short time. Yes, sir. My first glimpse of the landing ship frightened me. It looked like little more than a path. Hold on. We're going into the landing. The strip was not much more than 300 feet long. The end of it fell off into a canyon. The jungle, stood like a wall at the edge of the landing ship, tangled vines, palm, ferns, and a profusion of underbrush that was stifling. As soon as I heard that, I knew Kamali was near. Will the doctor got it? Kamali. I hardly knew you. Because of this colored silk? Yes. It's from parachute. Kamali and the other Fijian troops decked themselves in a colored silk. And as I stood there, looking at them, I had a fleeting feeling of satisfaction that these men were on our side. I went with them to raid Pipipaia. Should be within time if no one knew when now. A young New Zealander was in command. Okay. Walk as we come over the top of this ridge. Move up. I looked back at Kamali, creeping through the jungle as if he were part of it. He smiled at me and tapped the pocket on his chest. In that pocket was his testament. He had complete faith and no fear that the Fijians had remarkable eyesight and an incredible jungle scent. There is Numanuma. It took me a minute to spot it, almost hidden in the jungle. That's it. All right. Easy. We're getting close to the sentries. Move up. Kamali and the other Fijians moved through the jungle almost without making a sound. I crept as quietly as I could. There was a Japanese. It's a sentry. All right. Move up. My heart pounded as we slipped by him. That's Pipipaia. All right. Ready now. Suddenly the signal was given. Kamali was upon the sentry like a tiger and suddenly the entire jungle was alive. Formed into the clearing. Out one Fijian was hit. Pipipaia clearing was strewn with Japanese death. We caught them, Dr. Count. Yes, Kamali. I hope we shall be as lucky every time. We will. After this, the Fijians infiltrated the Japanese lines almost at will. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. No Japanese. after thinking every Japanese ship that comes near. And if they're that short on rations, we have been activated their entire force on Bougainville. Then came a report and an order from our headquarters at Cape Torokino. The Japanese are massing powerful forces here around Everest, Augusta Bay. Also, they are moving down the east coast to Numa Numa with a view to taking Ibu. Therefore, destroy and evacuate Ibu at once. Our mission at Ibu was completed. We must leave here. But we cannot return to Cape Torokino. We are cut off there. Your work here has been magnificent. And on the basis of your reconnaissance, we know now that we can leave the Japanese here to die on the vine. The remaining question is whether we can get out alive. Set fire to everything. We will evacuate at once. Except for the old mission house, we left nothing to the Japanese but ruins. Dr. Cowley? Yes, family. I am one of five to be left behind here as rear guard to cover the retreat of the company. Kamalee, the five of you? Yes, the Japanese are expected before dark. I think I will stay with you, Kamalee. No, Dr. Cowley. Maybe I can help. No, you are needed. Back in Suva. I got permission to stay. We took off positions in the ruins of some huts. Kamalee and another T.T. and I were in one hut. The three others were in another hut, situated so that we could catch the incoming enemy in our crossfire. We waited. Just before dark, the Japanese began to sift into the ruins of Ibu. Those were the other huts of open fire on them. Yes, they are advancing on the other hut. Yes, wait. Do not shoot yet. Wait. We stopped them. Now we must watch out. We're ready for them. She is hip, Dr. Cowley. I'll take care of him. Yes, I will hold them off. Kamalee was shot through the neck. I gave him first aid in the gathering darkness. He smiled and tapped his breast pocket with a testimony. I took it out and placed it in his hand. I kept my fingers on his pulse and felt his life ebbing away. And there in the darkness, in that burned-out hut in the jungle, Kamalee died. The other young T.G. and I slipped out in the night and at last joined the rest of the T.G. company. And now I'm back again in Suva, back in the Central Medical School. A new class of T.G. is in training to become NMPs. When I look at them, I think of Kamalee. And then I know my place is here among the people that he wanted to serve. Through the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations, to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the crosscurrents of life in the Pacific basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents and stamps their coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. To repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents and stamps their coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Written and produced by Arnold Marquess. The music was scored by Henry Russell. The principal voice was that of Herman Waldman. And now, Gain Whitman has something of importance to say to you, Gain. The future catches up with this very quickly. Do you have today what you thought you'd have several years ago to protect your future by United States-saving bonds now? Buy them regularly every payday. And if you are already doing that, buy extra bonds now. These are difficult times for all of us. The one way to be sure of a better tomorrow is to provide for it today. Buy US-saving bonds now. Programs in this series of particular interests to servicemen and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood and is heard in Canada over the facilities of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.