The Pacific in Wartime

Apprentice: This little Melanesian boy helps his elders build a warehouse for U.S. Marines at a SoPac base.
Saunders (U.S. Marine Corps)

Captain Moy of the Australian Army is shown here employing the natives of Bougainville to work for the Marines. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Pfc. Phil Scheer

Dressed in native beads they received from the natives of (Mok Island) the crew traded cigarettes, razor blades, and odd bits of cloth for native handicraft and fruit. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
T/4 Stanley Lambert

Florida Island. . . .Native boys barter bananas for American tobacco with Marines at a Southwest Pacific Island
Mar. Gun. J.F. Leopold, U.S. Marines

Islanders also found new markets for human skulls that were, in many areas, part of traditional religious practices. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Anonymous

Islanders and sailors from the USS Nicholas exchange grass skirts for cigarettes. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
U.S. Navy

Jungle Trading Post: Cpl. Robert A. Weeks a former interior decorator the painter who now uses his talent to camouflage Leathneck [sic] mechanized equipment. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Tech. Sgt. M.E. Moran

Lt. Geo A. Rollinsk, supply officer of 193 Inf. dickers with three natives with canes, grass skirts, et cetera, to sell.
Unknown

Many Islanders quickly became aware of the trade potential of their traditional arts.
U.S. Army Signal Corps

Marines Bargaining with Natives [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Cpl. D.L. Kettler

Natives of a South Pacific island join a navy labor battalion as workers and guides. [See "more images" below for complete caption]
Unknown

Natives washing a Navy jeep at Port Moresby, 1943
Unknown