bigpigeon.us webpage World Wars > WW II - Japan > Japan Lashes Out > New Guinea & the Solomons, updated by RAC 28 Sep 2021.
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This webpage consists of a geopolitical overview of the South and Southwest Pacific area prior to WWII and a summary of the Japanese invasion of portions of this area early in 1942.  See the South & SW Pacific webarea for information about the 1942-44 Allied reconquest of this area.
Before WW II, the Island of New Guinea was divided into three jurisdictions:
  • Western New Guinea was part of the Netherlands East Indies, todays Indonesia.
  • Southeastern New Guinea, known as Papua, was a territory of the Dominion of Australia.
  • The Territory of New Guinea, which included northeastern New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the northern Solomon Island of Bougainville, was administered by Australia under a mandate from the League of Nations. Before WW I, it had been a German colony.
Today's nation of Papua includes former Southeastern New Guinea and the Territory of New Guinea.
Northern Melanesia 1920-1940
Northern Melanesia 1920-1940
Also shown above are:
  • the British colony of the Solomon Islands.
  • the New Hebrides, then jointly administered by Great Britian and France and now the island nation of Vanuatu.
The following more-detailed map shows a portion of this area. Cape York, on the bottom left, is part of Australia itself.​ The three New Guinea capitals are Hollandia, the capital of the Dutch area, in the left center, Rabaul, on the island of New Britain in the center, and the Papuan capital Port Moresby in the bottom left.
  • Between January and July of 1942, Japanese forces occupied key locations in Melanesia.
  • From the beginning of the Solomon Islands campaign on Guadualcanal in August 1942, and until the Gilbert Islands campaign to the east in November 1943, most Allied combat in the Pacific was in the area shown above.
  • United States, Australian, and New Zealand forces painfully forced the Japanese from the occupied areas in brutal battles sometimes lasting for months. Over twenty Pottawattamie County area servicemen, Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine, died.
New Guinea & the Solomons
New Guinea (eastern part), the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Admiralty Islands
1942 Japanese advances:
  • 23 Jan: Rabaul on northern New Britain and  Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese then developed Rabaul into their major base in the South/Southwest Pacific.
  • 7 Mar: Salamaua and Lae in eastern  New Guinea.
  • 3 May: Tulagi on Florida Is. just north of Guadalcanal in the Solomons.
  • ​21 Jul: Buna/Gona in eastern New Guinea. 
  • July: Guadalcanal in the central Solomons.
Japanese Advances in Melanesia - Early 1942
Japanese Advances in Melanesia - Early 1942
Sources for the New Guinea & the Solomon Islands webpage: