Page "History of Nauru" Paragraph 16

Japanese troops occupied Nauru on 26 August 1942.

The native Nauruans were badly treated by the occupying forces.

On one occasion forty nine leprosy sufferers were reputedly loaded onto boats which were towed out to sea and sunk.

The Japanese troops built an airfield on Nauru which was bombed for the first time on 25 March 1943, preventing food supplies from being flown to Nauru.

In 1943 the Japanese deported 1, 200 Nauruans to work as labourers in the Chuuk islands.