Fiji is a large island group in southwest Polynesia, located 1300 miles north of New Zealand's North Island close to the International Date Line. There are about 105 inhabited islands in the group with a total area of about 7000 square miles. It was a British protectorate in 1941. The population was about half native Fijians and half Indian workers who had been brought in by the British.
Though the population was not large, it contributed some of the toughest troops that fought in the Pacific. The Fiji Defense Force reached a peak of 8000 men, mostly Fijians or persons of mixed Fijian-European ancestry. Ethnic Indians were excluded for political reasons. About 2500 of these troops saw combat in the Solomon Islands, where their exploits as scouts became legendary.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2010 by Kent G. Budge. Index
