Famous Visitors
First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt spent five hectic weeks on her South Pacific tour observing the war’s impact, health conditions and lifting morale amongst servicemen. Praised for her sincere concern, she often ate with soldiers, visited make-shift hospitals and followed up with soldiers’ families upon her return home.
During her South Pacific tour, Eleanor Roosevelt spent a brief time on Aitutaki (22nd August 1943). Her diary notes record her thoughts and observations from each section of the tour.
To view movie footage (no sound track) covering some of this tour - CLICK HERE
In late 1943, Gary Cooper undertook a 23,000-mile (37,000 km) tour of the USA's South Pacific bases with actresses Una Merkel and Phyllis Brooks, and accordionist Andy Arcari. Traveling on a B-24 Liberator bomber, the group toured the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Australia and New Guinea. The shows concluded with Cooper's moving recitation of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech. When he returned to the United States, he visited military hospitals throughout the country. Cooper later called his time with the troops the "greatest emotional experience" of his life.
First Lady - Eleanor Roosevelt
In order to understand conditions being faced by soldiers on isolated bases, Eleanor Roosevelt took every opportunity to dine with and share her time with enlisted men.
Movie Stars & Entertainers -
Gary Cooper
Phyllis Brooks
Una Merkel
Andy Arcari
To listen to Andy play CLICK HERE
Eleanor Roosevelt with South Pacific area commanders; Army General M. F. Harmon and the U.S. Navy's Admiral William Halsey Jr.
After a short stint of 22 days on Bora Bora, Tahiti, Lt. James A. Michener was stationed for a short time from 4 Aug 1945 at the US base on Aitutaki. By this time the US military presence on Aitutaki had been reduced to a token garrison of 2 officers and 10 enlisted men.
Heavily influenced by his experiences serving in the Pacific Islands, Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Tales of the South Pacific", is a collection of sequentially related short stories about World War II, written in 1946 and published in 1947.
Michener wrote several other books that were no doubt also based on his experiences in the Pacific during the war. Among them were; "Rascals In Paradise" and "Return To Paradise".
Author - James A. Michener
The young US Navy Lieutenant J.A. Michener
Polititician - Peter Fraser
Peter Fraser was New Zealand's Prime Minister from March 1940 to December 1949.
Concerned with issues relating to inequality and discrimination that were causing unrest in the Cook Islands, and about to project himself on a United Nations stage as the war ended, Peter Fraser took time away from the war cabinet to pay a flying visit to Penrhyn, Aitutaki and Rarotonga from 27 - 31 December 1944. By this time an airstrip had been constructed on Rarotonga earlier in the year by a New Zealand construction team, which included expatriate Cook Islanders.
Eleanor Roosevelt is met by Colonel Garity as she arrives at Amuri Field, Aitutaki.