Defending whose country? : indigenous soldiers in the Pacific war / Noah Riseman.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-296) and index.

Introduction : reading colonialism and indigenous involvement in the Second World War -- An exception in the equation? Donald Thompson and the NTSRU -- Allies at war : de facto Yolngu soldiers -- Black skins, black work : Papuan and New Guinean labor -- Guerrillas for the white men : formal Papuan and New Guinean fighters -- The Navajo code talkers : warriors for the settler nation -- When the war was over : forgetting and remembering the code talkers -- Conclusion : the soldier-warrior in the modern war.

"This book analyzes an assortment of accounts of Yolngu, Papua New Guinean, and Navajo participation in the Second World War. It frames their roles in the contexts of settler-indigenous relations and the common pasts of the then--and still--divided nations. The primary case studies are Yolngu units and 'de facto' auxiliaries in Arnhem Land, Australia; laborers, police, coastwatchers, and the Pacific Island Regiment in Papua and New Guinea; and Navajo code talkers in the U.S. Marine Corps"--Page 3.