Aspects of Samoan Women's Wartime Experiences
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SUBTLE INVASIONS: ASPECTS OF SAMOAN WOMEN’S WARTIME EXPERIENCES SAUI’A LOUISE MARIE TUIMANUOLO MATAIA-MILO A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON 2017 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisors, Adrian Muckle, and Charlotte Macdonald for all your assistance. I thank you most sincerely for your patience, interest, and immense knowledge that guided and helped me through this research. I could not have imagined having better advisors and mentors for this journey. I acknowledge the scholarship award under the Memorandum of Understanding between the National University of Samoa and Victoria University that enabled me to pursue this study. I also received financial assistance from the Victoria Doctoral Hardship Scholarship and Victoria Doctoral Submission Scholarship. I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to all my research participants (age 83-105 years), in Upolu, Manono, Savai’i, Tutuila and Manu’a, and in Auckland. You graciously agreed to be interviewed, to contribute and to share your wartime life stories. You are the reason I set out to find answers. Your war experiences have become the core of this thesis. Without you this study would not have been possible. I know most of you have passed on to the spirit world, but your wisdom will strengthen the next generation of Samoan women. A number of people have contributed their services to improve the quality of this thesis, notably the VUW Librarians Justin Cargill and Tony Quinn, the staff of the New Zealand National Library/Alexander Turnbull Library and Archives New Zealand. A note of gratitude also goes to Father Ioane Ono for giving me permission to look at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia Archives at Vailima. Grace Millar has been a great help in reading and formatting the manuscript. Special thanks also go Judith Bennett who allowed me to access some of the US archives she collected for her project. Thank you also to a small army of friends, here in New Zealand, Pago Pago and Apia that I could access via private messages on social media, who helped me with retaking photos I missed, clarifying names, and attending funerals on my behalf. Special thanks also goes to Dr. Lizzie Towl of the Faculty of Graduate Research and her ‘Shut Up and Write’ sessions every Wednesday mornings. I met many awesome i people in this group, whom I shared this journey with especially, Mickey, Evan, Ha, Corina and Nancy. Thanks for being my writing buddies. There were many people along the way who welcomed me into their homes to live or to rest a while during the fieldwork in American Samoa: Mulinu’u Leaupepe and Manino Salamo, Ruby Ripley, and I’aulualo Folau Solofa. I am grateful also to the descendants of Tui Manu’a Elisara, Reverend Filoiali’i (EFKAS) and families, for accepting me, a stranger, into their home. I would like to acknowledge the love and support of my families in New Zealand and in Samoa. I am extremely grateful to my inlaws in Auckland, New Plymouth and Hamilton for your support; and thank you also to my brother Leslie and his family, especially Rosalini, Vaauli, Nicholas and Lucas, for putting a smile on my face everytime you call. I le agaga fiafia, e momoli fo’i le faafetai tele male faamalo i o’u aiga pele, uso ma tuagane i lau tapuaiga, faapea si ou tina, Rosalie Taioalo Vaauli Mataia. O lau lagolago, o fautuaga sa faamalosiau ia te au, ua afua ai le faai’uina manuia o a’u taumafaiga. Faafetai tele mo alofaaga momolipo, ma ia faamanuia atu pea le Ali’i ia te oe. Ia tatou faafo’i pea le vi’iga ma le faamanu i le Atua soifua. Finally, a special thanks to my husband, Sulutumu Taiatu Sasa Milo. Patience is indeed one of your greatest virtues. This is also your work. You listened to my ramblings before they became ideas. Your weird humour kept me sane and your positive thinking inspired me to keep going. I am glad I shared this journey with you. Thank you for believing in me. E lalelei la’u pele! This thesis is dedicated to all the women of Samoa who lived through the Second World War. Your memories have become my memories, and through this thesis they will be the next generations’ memories. Faafetai alofa! ii Abstract During World War Two the peaceful “occupation” of the Samoa Islands by US Forces combined with existing colonial conditions to transform the lives of Samoans in important yet also subtle ways. Drawing on thirty two oral history interviews and the papers of the colonial administrations this thesis examines the wartime lives of Samoan women. Their accounts of their experiences reveal how they understood the war at the time and after years of life experience. Using approaches from social history and women’s history this thesis illustrates women’s agency in finding ways to manage the new social contexts and situations created by the war. The central argument of this thesis is that it was the ordinary business of negotiating daily life during the war that engaged and normalised social changes. These mundane everyday acts were significant historical moments that wove new and unique motifs into the tapestry of Samoan women’s history. The war brought to Samoa a multitude of American servicemen who saw Samoa through a ‘romantic’ lens as an arcadia of unrestrained social mores. In contrast, through this research Samoan women reveal their wartime experiences in their own words. The women’s narratives indicate that the war interrupted lives in many ways causing them to rethink their roles in response to the changes. The four areas of Samoan women’s lives that this thesis examines are their roles in their families and communities, their involvement with the churches, their engagement with wartime popular culture and lastly their wartime sexual encounters. The discussion opens with a portrait of Samoan society during the 1920s and 1930s, depicting the social and political forces that shaped women’s lives and influenced their understandings of their wartime experiences. This discussion highlights how colonial entanglements had a bearing on the different trajectories that women’s lives took during the war. The thesis then turns to explore the arrival of the war, examining the women’s initial experiences and reactions with a particular focus on what they learnt from their experiences and how they adapted to change in the context of their communities and families. The study finds that social transformation was a response to the war’s disruption of physical and cultural space and the critical structures and ideologies that are central to Samoans’ way of life. iii The second part of this enquiry examines how wartime circumstances affected Samoan women’s sometimes tense relations with the Christian churches. The churches occupied a central place in Samoan society as a provider of both spiritual nurture and secular education for women during the war years, so they deserve specific attention. Wartime conditions created opportunities that expanded and rejuvenated the scope of Samoan women’s agency which had been marginalised and narrowed by Christian influence before the war. At the same time, the war heightened the pre-war tensions between Samoan women’s agency and the power of the churches. Despite the clergy’s reluctance, the churches provided spaces in which American troops socialised with the Samoan population, creating social situations that were difficult to control. The third area analyses Samoan women’s engagement with wartime popular culture and how the consumption of introduced material culture galvanised their autonomy and enabled them to tailor social transformation to suit their personal perceptions. Wartime popular culture in its many forms contributed to the rapid absorption of new ideas and the adaptation of cultural practices. Women’s engagement with this popular culture resulted in ‘on the ground changes’ that stimulated social transformation and which should be appreciated as significant historical moments in their own right. The fourth area of discussion investigates Samoan women’s wartime sexual encounters. The perception that Samoan women’s sexual encounters with American servicemen were characterised by an unrestrained morality on their part ignores other factors that shaped these encounters, including violence and their own bodily knowledge and preparedness. This study shows that Samoan women had a variety of sexual encounters during the war and their narratives speak volumes about the pains of such life-changing moments. There was no single or archetypal wartime experience. The thirty two interviewees experienced the war in different parts of the Samoa islands and their social and political alignment has influenced their perceptions and understanding of their wartime lives. The social transformation brought by the war involved considered responses from the women who sought to balance personal and family interests and Samoan values. Exploring the women’s wartime lives reveals their resilience and their ability to overcome difficulties and effect change for the better of their community. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements i Abstract iii Table of Contents v List of Figures vi List of Tables vi List of Abbreviations vii Chapter One. Introduction: Situating Samoan Women’s World War II Experiences 1 Chapter Two. Lesolosolou - Samoa on the eve of the Second World War 42 Chapter Three. The War Arrives in Samoa 78 Chapter Four. Samoan Women and the Churches during the War 111 Chapter Five. Consuming Wartime Pleasures: Samoan Women’s Engagement with Wartime Popular Culture 138 Chapter Six. Samoan Women’s Wartime Sexual Encounters 173 Chapter Seven: Conclusion 210 Appendix 1: Participant Information Sheet 216 Appendix 2: Consent Forms 218 Appendix 3: Questions for Oral History Interviews 220 Bibliography 231 v List of Figures Figure 1 The Pacific and adjacent theatre..............................................................................