Tomorrow will be a great day. I am in Apia, and will be participating in celebrations of the 50^thanniversary of the former Western Samoa’s independence from foreign rule. I feel a particular connection to the event because New Zealand was Samoa’s former administrator, and I am officially accredited to both nations.

Also, as an American, I have an affinity for independence days. Americans, like Samoans, instinctively understand the importance of empowering citizens to direct their own destiny, to speak freely, to assemble as they wish, and to pray to their Creator as they see fit, without government interference.  Independence is not about nationalist rhetoric, it is about personal liberty.

The first of the island territories to regain independence after World War II, Western Samoa – officially renamed in 1997 as the Independent State of Samoa – has been a democratic stalwart and trailblazer in the Pacific region. The 50^th anniversary is indeed a golden milestone, worthy of celebration. To support our good friends and commemorate the occasion in robust fashion, I have brought with me a U.S. Navy frigate, NOAA climate research vessel, Coast Guard C-130, military marching band, and African-American step troupe.  But I’ll talk about all that in subsequent blog posts.

For now, though, on this special occasion I would like to focus on Samoan memories, feelings, and perspectives on what occurred here 50 years ago. I have thus invited a few of my good friends to share their thoughts. Rather than recap, I thought you might enjoy hearing from them directly in their own words, via videos that we shot.

Back in 1962, Leasiolagi Malama Meleisea was a 14-year-old boy in his first year at Samoa College. He is currently a Lands and Titles Court Judge as well as an expert in Samoan history, language, and culture. He is the author of several history books including Lagaga: A short history of Western Samoa, which is widely used in Samoan secondary schools. He also wrote The Making of Modern Samoa: Traditional Authority and Colonial Administration in the History of Western Samoa. Most recently he co-authored book about Samoa’s struggle for independence that will be launched later this week.

Papali’i Doctor Viopapa Annandale Atherton was a young woman during the independence process. A retired medical doctor, she is now a strong advocate for women and children’s rights and is at the forefront of the campaign to eliminate discrimination against women. She is known in Samoa for her work with the PanPacific and South East Asia Women’s Association and other NGOs.

Va’asilifiti Moelagi Jackson was a Samoa College student when independence was achieved. She traveled from the big island of Savai’i to Apia to take part in the celebrations that year. A keen advocate for the rights of women and children, Va’asilifiti is now the Vice-President of the Samoa Umbrella for Non-Government Organizations (SUNGO), as well as a member of the Samoa Red Cross board.

Le Tagaloa Pita was actually in the United States as a sophomore at Drew University at the time of independence. Le Tagaloa is now a high chief from Gautavai and holds the paramount title of Le Tagaloa in Sili, Savaii. During a political career spanning more than 30 years, he was a Member of Parliament, founding member of the Human Rights Protection Party, and a Cabinet Minister with the portfolios of economic affairs and the post office. Prior to entering politics, Le Tagaloa was Acting Principal o the South Pacific Regional College of Tropical Agriculture.

The moving words of these four pillars of Samoan society – Leasiolagi Malama Meleisea, Papali’i Doctor Viopapa Annandale Atherton, Va’asilifiti Moelagi Jackson, and Le Tagaloa Pita – speak for themselves. I wish only to again congratulate all of my friends here on the special day tomorrow.

Malo le tau, malo le finau Samoa! Ia faatasi atu le Atua, a’o alo atu le atunuu ile fa’amanatuina o le 50 tausaga o le tuto’atasi.

I am delighted with the robust participation of American entertainers at this year’s 50^th Independence Day celebrations in Samoa. I am particularly happy that we were able to arrange for Step Afrika, a critically acclaimed group of step dancers from the United States, to perform at a number of venues in Samoa during the anniversary week.

Step Afrika has already performed to several large, enthusiastic crowds here. If you are in Samoa and would like to see a show – and I certainly encourage you to – take a look at the remainder of the schedule below:

Tuesday May 29:

2pm – 4pm: Performance at the Le Papaigalagala Fale, NUS

Wednesday May 30:

10am – 12 pm: Performance/workshop at Sataoa EFKS Hall
1:30pm – 3.30 pm: Performance/workshop at Poutasi village
9:30pm – Performance at Samoa Fa’afafine Association’s Annual Beauty Pageant at Gym 1, Tuanaimato

Thursday May 31:

7.30pm – 10pm: Performance at Moata’a EFKS Hall

Friday June 1:

12 pm – 2pm: Performance at Government Building stage
7:30 pm – 10 pm: Performance at Government Building stage

Saturday June 2:

7pm: Performance at Government Building stage

Monday June 4:

6pm – 10 pm: Perform at the ‘I Love Samoa Concert’, Government Building Stage

Yes, we are working the steppers hard, but that’s because we want as many people as possible to see this dynamic American cultural expression. So do come by. I hope to see you at one or more of the performances. I’ll be at most of them, so say hello when you see me in the audience.

I’m saving up the best photos and will run a special Step Afrika performance post after the celebrations end. In the meantime, for more information about Step Afrika or stepping in general, check out the group’s website: www.stepafrika.org.

I very much regret not being able to get back to Wellington from my Washington meetings in time for Memorial Day this year. I had been looking forward to the annual memorial service at Old St Paul’s and the special events in Paekakariki, but flight schedules did not align favorably.

Several of my colleagues, including my Deputy Chief of Mission Marie Damour, attended today’s events on my behalf. I asked my colleague Adrian Pratt to share his impressions of the memorials. His guest post follows immediately below.

* * *

AP: Today Frank Zalot Jr. came back for the first time to the place he saw 10 of his shipmates drown on a dreadful day in 1943.

This Memorial Day the people of Kapiti Coast on the North Island of New Zealand unveiled a memorial to the 10 U.S. sailors who died during a training exercise while trying to come ashore on June 20, 1943. About 350 people, including Charge d’Affaires Marie Damour and a U.S. Marine Color guard, were there for the dedication of the memorial, sculptured into the shape of a landing craft, close to the waters where the tragedy occured.

The story of the drowning only recently came to light. At last year’s Memorial Service Kapiti Mayor Jenny Rowland read out the names of the dead for the first time. A world away, in Massachusetts, that reading had a profound effect on Zalot.

“For 68 years I had this nightmare,” the still spritely Zalot said. “I could hear the men screaming.”

After the Memorial Day service last year, Zalot went to sleep, expecting again to hear the screams of his drowning friends. But the nightmare did not return. “I realized it wasn’t their screams I’d been hearing. It was them yelling, ‘tell our story.’ I’ve not heard their screams since.”

Seventy years ago, on June 12, 1942 the first U.S. servicemen began arriving on New Zealand. Most of the Kiwi troops were fighting World War II in Europe and North Africa. The country felt vulnerable to attack after Pearl Harbor. Between 1942 and 1944 more than 150,000 U.S. troops were deployed to New Zealand, to train and then depart for the bloody battles of the Pacific. Close bonds were formed between New Zealanders and their American guests.

The weather off the Kapiti Coast on that day in 1943 was fierce, with a cold rain driven in on gale-force winds. Frank Zalot Jr., a U.S. sailor who’d enlisted in the Navy right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, was a long way from his small-town home in Massachusetts on that day, the day “everything went wrong.”

Two other U.S. veterans who were there that day – Ted Picard on the rescue boat and Ray LaPlante aboard the American Legion – were also part of the Memorial Day services in Paekakariki.

On what would turn out to be a fateful day, about 1,600 U.S. Marines were to be brought to shore on 35 landing craft (LCVP) from the troop transport ship the American Legion, Zalot’s ship. After dropping the Marines about 100 feet offshore into frigid waters being pounded by waves, the 35 LCVPs tried desperately to get back to the ship. But the ferocious conditions along with a falling tide left all of them stranded.

After the other 34 vessels successfully re-launched later that day, the mission scrubbed, it was discovered that the engine on Zalot’s LCVP was dead. They would require a tow, stern-first, back out to the American Legion. The weather had not abated. It was dark now, after 11 p.m., and the breakers were roaring in at eight to 10 feet. Being towed backwards, the boats did not cut through the waves. Rather, they smashed through them violently and were deluged by walls of water. After a merciless pounding one monster wave capsized the boat, still about half a mile from the relative safety of the American Legion. Men in their heavy equipment hit the waters and began immediately to sink.

“I started to pull myself to the surface, grabbing a shipmate’s belt-buckle on the way up,” Zalot has written. “When I broke the surface, there was a scene that became a nightmare. Men were screaming. ‘Help, help! I can’t swim!’ Before this I naively thought that only women and girls screamed, but I quickly learned that men can scream too – scream as they are dying.”

Coming back to New Zealand after all these years has been “overwhelming,” Zalot said. The people of New Zealand have made a fuss over him and the memories from long ago have come back strongly.

Zalot was in the freezing, violent water for a long time that night.

“It was still pitch dark and the roar of the wind and sea was very loud,” Zalot wrote. “Suddenly the clouds parted and the moon came out. I desperately started looking for a pencil, paper, and a bottle. I knew I was dying and wanted to write a note to my mother to tell her that I was thinking of her right to the very end. Then I passed out. I don’t remember hearing or seeing the rescue boat. One of the sailors in the rescue boat said he saw my hand sticking up from the water and threw a life-ring over it; then he pulled me over to the boat.”

In addition to the terrible images from that night, Zalot carries with him a haunting tale.

He was returned to Wellington, just down the coast from Kapiti, that night. Zalot could see where the war was heading and knew that he and his comrades would soon be shipped closer to the fighting and away from New Zealand. Wellington had been their home base for more than a year and Zalot had been “adopted” by a Kiwi family, the O’Briens. The day after the awful incident that had nearly cost him his life, Zalot told his doctor he was heading into town to say goodbye to his friends.

Zalot recalls that the doctor told him, “‘If your temperature drops to 105, you can go.’  And I said, if it goes up to 125, I’m still going. He said ‘Go ahead. I won’t stop you.’”

The O’Briens ran a milk bar, a place to socialize and enjoy a milk shake.  When he arrived there his Kiwi “mother” asked him if he had heard about the terrible tragedy off Kapiti the night before.

“Did I hear about it?! I was in it,” Zalot wrote. “Then I told her the story. She didn’t say another word. Two weeks later I received one-page letter from her:

“My Dearest Frank,

On the night of the 20th I was very tired and retired early. I had a dream that you were in terrible danger. I got out of bed, onto my knees and prayed to God to see you safely through your danger. I prayed on my knees for a very long time, at least 45 minutes. It was midnight when I got back into bed. I couldn’t tell you this that night at the milk bar. But I wanted you to know. Your loving New Zealand mother, Jean O’Brien.

“We capsized at 11:17 pm and I was rescued at midnight. (Our watches had stopped at 11:17; they weren’t waterproof.) Did God really hear the prayer of a loving mother whose son was in terrible danger or was this just a coincidence?”

It’s a question Zalot has carried with him for nearly 70 years.

Ten U.S. servicemen drowned off Paekakariki on June 20, 1943; one officer and nine enlisted men:

H.C. Winfrey (Ensign), Howard J. Britton (Seaman 1st Class), Joseph P. Lorbietski (Seaman 1st Class), William D. Roundtree (Seaman 1st Class), Alva L. Skoog (Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class), Kenneth G. Snow (Seaman 1st Class), Alden P. Thatcher* (Seaman 1st Class), Charles F. Vetter (Seaman 1st Class), Walter J. Yanghis (Seaman 1st Class), Cox (first name & rank not available).

And today they were officially remembered. And the screams in Zalot’s head have gone.

AP

* * *

Thanks to Adrian and especially to Frank for sharing such a compelling story. As we enter the month of June we will be sharing additional historical anecdotes, personal remembrances, and bits of local color from the 1940s as part of our commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the arrival of American forces in Aotearoa after the outbreak of World War II.

Stay tuned for more information about the Embassy’s anniversary events including the concert tour by the U.S. Marine Band, lectures by a Marine historian, ceremonies in Wellington and Auckland, and release of commemorative stamps and a commemorative coin. I will also be sharing photos from our Independence Day receptions which this year will be held in June to coincide with the anniversary dates and will be themed for 1942.

One of the many pleasures of my job is bumping into other Americans doing interesting things here in New Zealand. Perhaps my most unique new American acquaintance is Tom McFadden, whom I met last year when he came to Otago University as a Fulbright scholar to pursue a Master’s degree in science communication. Known around the ‘hood as The Rhymebosome or the Science Rapper, Tom certainly has a special way of talking about things like cell differentiation and organic chemistry.

An instructor in human biology at Stanford University before being awarded the Fulbright, Tom is passionate about stimulating interest and enthusiasm in science, particularly with students not naturally drawn to the subject. Conveying his course material in rap form was an experiment in focusing attention and improving recall, and it worked exceedingly well according to his former students, some of whom were known to tap their feet, rock side to side, and mumble rhymes during examinations.

And that’s a useful lesson for all of us. Science is all about understanding ourselves and the dynamic world around us. Even for those of us not in university or pursuing careers in science, understanding various science topics including things like anatomy, nutrition, biology, and technology can extend our lives and make our time on Earth much more happy and rewarding. In addition, understanding scientific method and basic concepts will make us more informed voters and citizens, less likely to be hoodwinked by fear-mongers and political tricksters.

For those reasons and others, I believe that credible science education should be a top priority for every student. Too often, though, traditional curricula kick the life out of science and turn students off. That’s why jazzed-up, over-caffeinated, non-traditional sci-high folks like Tom are so important.

Only those with their own passion for science can infuse the life and energy back into the subject for the rest of us. Only those who view science as a big shiny wild pile of games, toys, puzzles, songs, dances, and curiosities can make science engaging and accessible, particularly for small children just starting to learn.

So naturally I’ve been looking for opportunities to leverage Tom’s talents. Fortunately, he decided to stay on for another year in Dunedin after his Fulbright scholarship ended in order to complete his degree.

The extra time has allowed us to arrange and schedule a tour of primary and intermediate schools in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin this month, during which Tom will teach a variety of science topics to kids using music and rap.

While on tour, Tom will also be promoting “Science Idol,” which challenges students to write and perform their own songs with science themes, culminating in a competition at the International Science Festival in Dunedin.

I’ve been polishing up my own rap about the characteristics of heterocyclic molecules, set to Dr Dre’s “Nuthin but a G Thang,” but Tom tells me that I’m over the age limit.

That’s fine. It’s probably best for everyone if I’m in the audience rather than on stage. Tom’s the performer. I’ve heard him rap a few times, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing him again while he’s on tour. If you get the chance to attend a performance or class of his, I bet you’ll enjoy the experience as well.

If you are interested in hearing more about Tom and his work, take a look at his Facebook page or search for more of his videos on YouTube. And, of course, do share Tom’s music with the youngsters and students in your family. You and they will be glad you did. His passion and energy are infectious. In a good way.