When Kiwis Hunted Yanks

The story in Salient about the Manners Street battle (Salient No. 10), in which New Zealanders killed a few US soldiers, sparked memories in the mind of one member of the older generation. He was serving in the army in Palmerston North during the last Japanese war, a time which saw the presence in New Zealand of 50,000 US troops. He remembers being paraded along with all the other men and their hands, their fingernails and boots being examined after 'some of the boys had kicked an MP to death in a taxi. That's Military Policeman, not one of those......' This happened twice, said my friend, and he was quite surprised at my reaction. Wasn't the New Zealand Army made up of noble men marching off to defend Freedom, God and Country? What sort of tradition is that, killing comrades instead of Japs?

But back to the Yanks. In Palmerston North during that war, 'gangs of Maoris' hunted Yanks, trying to catch them alone and doing them over whenever they did. The reason for the anti-US feelings in the Maori community wasn't clear, but there's one possibility. Seems that a daughter of a Ratana Church leader in Wanganui was married to a son of the Japanese leader General Tojo, and when the Japanese promised liberation for the Maoris, it struck a responsive chord in a community occupying an oppressed position in New Zealand society. Quite understandably, these factors combined with the racist behaviour of the US soldiers could result in anti-US feeling among the Maoris.

I asked my source how he knew about the Yank-hunting.

'It was common knowledge.'

'Did they get any?'

'Yes. They caught and beat up isolated Yanks. Singly or in pairs.'

'How many riots were there in Wellington?'

'There were three big riots — battles for Wellington they were called — two major and one minor that I recall.'

My informant does not know the proximate catalyst of the fighting, it may very well have been the Yanks racist behaviour, but 'unquestionably' the ultimate cause was the women. 'New Zealand troops came back from the Middle East and found 50,000 US troops in the saddle. The smouldering resentment thus generated ensured that any spark, such as a single racist remark, would start a war. The 'problem' was solved by the simple expedient of staggering leaves so that NZ and US troops were never in Wellington at the same time.

He left me with this: 'You people who were born in 1944 or 1945, bear in mind that it's a clever child who is certain that it knows its own parents.'

—John Christie