Search results for ""Pacific""

Perilous Memories makes a groundbreaking and critical intervention into debates about war memory in the Asia-Pacific region. Arguing that much is lost or erased when the Asia-Pacific War(s) are reduced to the 1941–1945 war between Japan and the United States, this collection challenges mainstream memories of the Second World War in favor of what were actually multiple, widespread conflicts. The contributors recuperate marginalized or silenced memories of wars throughout the region—not only in Japan and the United States but also in China, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Okinawa, Taiwan, and Korea.Firmly based on the insight that memory is always mediated and that the past is not a stable object, the volume demonstrates that we can intervene positively yet critically in the recovery and reinterpretation of events and experiences that have been pushed to the peripheries of the past. The contributors—an international list of anthropologists, cultural critics, historians, literary scholars, and activists—show how both dominant and subjugated memories have emerged out of entanglements with such forces as nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, racism, and sexism. They consider both how the past is remembered and also what the consequences may be of privileging one set of memories over others. Specific objects of study range from photographs, animation, songs, and films to military occupations and attacks, minorities in wartime, “comfort women,” commemorative events, and postwar activism in pursuing redress and reparations.Perilous Memories is a model for war memory intervention and will be of interest to historians and other scholars and activists engaged with collective memory, colonial studies, U.S. and Asian history, and cultural studies.Contributors. Chen Yingzhen, Chungmoo Choi, Vicente M. Diaz, Arif Dirlik, T. Fujitani, Ishihara Masaie, Lamont Lindstrom, George Lipsitz, Marita Sturken, Toyonaga Keisaburo, Utsumi Aiko, Morio Watanabe, Geoffrey M. White, Diana Wong, Daqing Yang, Lisa Yoneyama

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Official art book of Seasons 1 and 2 of the anime series Pacific Rim: The Black, featuring concept art created during the development of the series. Pacific Rim: The Black burst onto TV screens in March 2021, marking a bold new chapter in the Pacific Rim franchise. Its captivating story of young siblings Taylor and Hayley and their epic trek across the desolate Australian landscape to track down their parents was captured in dynamic anime style, complete with earth-shaking Kaiju-Jaeger battles and a cast of unforgettable characters. The Art of Pacific Rim: The Black retraces Taylor and Hayley's dramatic odyssey from the perspectives of the talented producers, directors, writers and animators who created this immensely popular series. They provide fascinating insight into how the series came about, the development of the characters, the design of the Kaiju and Jaegers, and much more. This lush, coffee table hardback book is packed with stunning imagery from the series, including sketches, concept art and final renders. With an exclusive foreword from showrunner Greg Johnson and visuals covering Seasons 1 and 2, there has never been a better time to dive deeper into 'The Black'!

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Focussing on a survey of US history from its beginnings to the present, American History Unbound reveals our past through the lens of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. In so doing, it is a work of both history and anti-history, a narrative that fundamentally transforms and deepens our understanding of the United States. This text is accessible and filled with engaging stories and themes that draw attention to key theoretical and historical interpretations. Gary Y. Okihiro positions Asians and Pacific Islanders within a larger history of people of color in the United States and places the United States in the context of world history and oceanic worlds.

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For many people, the Pacific Crest Trail is the ultimate long-distance hiking trail. Beginning in the dry valleys of southern California, it follows the crest of the snow-capped Sierras and ends in the ancient forests of Washington’s Cascades. Along the way, national treasures such as Yosemite, Crater Lake, and Mount Rainier make this trail one of the premier hiking destinations in the world. But hiking is about much more than getting from A to B. Berger and Smith draw on their tremendous experience—together they have logged more than 12,000 miles on the PCT—to give tested advice to long-distance hikers on trip planning, gear and safety, seasonal considerations, trailheads and resupplies, permits, and much more.

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The United States launched a new Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy in late 2017 after reluctantly concluding that its patient effort to engage and socialize China to the rules-based order since 1972 had failed. China’s behaviour since 2009 convinced the United States that China is a revisionist power seeking to impose an authoritarian model of governance in Asia which, if successful, would end the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific as well as endanger US security and vital trade interests.The new US FOIP strategy initiative seeks to engage like-minded nations in economic, security (both traditional and non-traditional), and political governance partnerships to construct a collaborative and scalable network of relations that will be able to respond flexibly to meet a wide range of stakeholder needs and regional contingencies across the Indo-Pacific region.The United States occupies a peak organizing role in this network and works with a hierarchy of partners distributed throughout the vast Indo-Pacific to meet the economic, security, and governance capacity needs of network members at any level. The rules-based order is the “operating system” of this network approach, and so the network itself sustains the rules-based order for its members as a collective good. FOIP is more like a club that generates rules-based order benefits for its members and as such has little in common with Cold War bloc politics and containment strategy.Bearing in mind that FOIP is only in its start-up phase and is likely to gather momentum going forward; that the elements of this network strategy are already in place; and that the United States and its main FOIP partners together have considerable material, organizational, and soft power resources, one may say that its prospects for long-term sustainability and success are not bad.

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The Pacific Crest Trail as you've never seen it before! A visual feast for the senses, this highly designed paperback showcases the PCT through clever infographics, modern illustration, and insightful text. The book captures both the grandeur of the West Coast as well as the tiniest things that a thru-hiker notices and experiences during a 140-day trek.Through the written word, graphic design, and illustration, The Pacific Crest Trail: A Visual Compendium conveys the beauty and the beastliness of a 2,650-mile wilderness hike from Mexico to Canada. The author chronicles the PCT through infographics about the trail and the thru-hikers' experience, and includes arresting illustrations of the landscape and minutiae of the trail. Everything from trail markers, weather challenges, and the stories behind popular toponyms to the songs stuck in a hiker's head, thru-hiker trail names, and food consumed will be addressed, making this an ideal gift for any outdoor enthusiast.

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Drawing on the author’s extensive personal experience, Medicinal Plants of Asia and the Pacific provides comprehensive coverage of the medicinal plants of the region. Describing more than 300 compounds, the book discusses every important class of natural products while highlighting cutting-edge research and recent developments. With its broad scope and extensive compound listings, the presentation and approach of the book is completely original.

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In a beautifully crafted narrative that transports the reader from the salons of Europe to the shores of Tahiti, Harry Liebersohn examines the transformation of global knowledge during the great age of scientific exploration. He moves beyond the traditional focus on British and French travelers to include Germans, Russians, and some Americans, as well as the Tahitian, Hawaiian, and other Pacific islanders they encountered. Germany gets special attention because its travelers epitomized the era’s cosmopolitanism and its philosophers engaged most fully in a multicultural understanding of humanity.Famous adventurers like Captain Cook make appearances, but it’s the observations of such naturalists as Philibert Commerson, George Forster, and Adelbert von Chamisso that helped most to generate a new understanding of these far-flung societies. These European travelers saw non-Europeans neither as “savages” nor as projections of colonial fantasies. Instead the explorers accumulated a rich storehouse of perceptions through negotiations with patrons at home, collaborators abroad, salon philosophers, and missionary rivals.Liebersohn illuminates the transformative nature of human connections. He examines the expectations these servants of empire brought to the peoples they encountered, and acknowledges the effects of Oceanian behaviors, including unexpected notions of sexuality, on the Europeans. Equally important, he details the reception of these travelers upon their return home.An unforgettable voyage filled with delightful characters, dramatic encounters, and rich cultural details, The Travelers’ World heralds a moment of intellectual preparation for the modern global era. We now travel effortlessly to distant places, but the questions about perception, truth, and knowledge that these intercontinental mediators faced still resonate.

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Named one of Foreign Affairs' Best Books of 2016 In his magisterial 1,208 page narrative of the Pacific War, Francis Pike’s Hirohito’s War offers an original interpretation, balancing the existing Western-centric view with attention to the Japanese perspective on the conflict. As well as giving a ‘blow-by-blow’ account of campaigns and battles, Francis Pike offers many challenges to the standard interpretations with regards to the causes of the war; Emperor Hirohito’s war guilt; the inevitability of US Victory; the abilities of General MacArthur and Admiral Yamamoto; the role of China, Great Britain and Australia; military and naval technology; and the need for the fire-bombing of Japan and the eventual use of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hirohito’s War is accompanied by additional online resources, including more details on logistics, economics, POWs, submarines and kamikaze, as well as a 1930-1945 timeline and over 200 maps.

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An exceptional storyteller with an analytical eye, Merrel Clubb has gathered the letters he sent his parents from the Pacific Theater of World War II and his subsequent reflections on that war and on his life into a kind of then-and-now memoir. The letters are a treasure trove of humor, anxiety, and hope, revealing a young man thrust into a war that he does not understand. Through this exceptional portal on the past, we learn of the tragic absurdity of war, of a soldier trained for naval warfare but sent into land battle with weapons he'd never before fired; of command post latrines at which even commanding officers were sitting ducks; of the ghoulish trophies and mementos that soldiers collected from the battlefields. The letters describe a vivid cast of characters, from Clubb's childhood friend who instilled a love of poetry in his comrades to the hillbilly singer and the prostitute with whom the young Clubb had varied amorous adventures. But the most compelling figure in this narrative is, of course, Clubb himself, an intellectual who carried Jane Austen and Joseph Conrad along with his tommy gun; who used books as a fortification for his foxhole, discovering upon waking one morning that "Ouspensky stopped a bullet"; and who, in a darkly humorous moment, wrote home that "Plato is pretty consoling, because I can always think that somewhere there is a perfect hell of a navy of which this is but an imitation or representation." Returning to these letters years later prompts Clubb to look again at the Second World War and at the atomic bomb that ended it. In an analysis as useful to understanding our own historical moment as it is to reconsidering the past, Clubb counters the conventional wisdom shared by veterans and civilians alike, particularly regarding the concept of a "just war." For Clubb, as for so many veterans, the war does not end with the victory over Japan. Despite the intervening years, Clubb finds that the haunting episodes experienced over half a century ago echo still. Even in the solitude of the forest, in the hunting parties he meets, in the animals he himself kills, he hears again the sound of battle, sees again the faces of the victims of war. Part letters, part memoir, and part scholarly analysis, this volume ranges over a vast, colorful, and weighted territory. From the battles and respites in the Pacific Islands, to the night clubs and call girls of mainland San Francisco and San Diego; from the relative quiet of his aptly named hometown, Stillwater, to the similarly quiet Montana backcountry, Clubb's narrative explores the psychological terrain of a life disturbed, and forever changed, by war.

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The twin processes of integration and fragmentation have been the distinguishing features of contemporary globalization. Nowhere is this more strikingly evident than in the Asia Pacific. This first volume of a two-volume study concentrates on the geopolitical and economic transformation of Asia Pacific. It focuses on the complex relationship between the decline of ideological bipolarity, the rapid industrialization of East Asia and the tensions generated by the shifting balance of regional and global economic interests.Particular attention is devoted to the three major powers (the United States, China and Japan) and to a number of small and middle powers in particular Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia and Canada. Underpinning the entire analysis is the complex interplay of geopolitics, economy and culture.States, Markets and Civil Society in Asia Pacific is essential reading for scholars and researchers of Asia Pacific politics and economy. The coherent analysis will also ensure the books appeal to those in NGOs and government agencies affected by, or working in, the region.

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Demographic transition, along with the economic and geopolitical re-emergence of Asia, are two of the largest forces shaping the twenty-first century, but little is known about the implications for innovation. The countries of East Asia have some of the oldest age structures on the planet: between now and 2050, the population that is age 65 and older will increase to more than one in four Chinese, and to more than one in three Japanese and Koreans. Other economies with younger populations, like India, face the challenge of fully harnessing the “demographic dividend” from large cohorts in the working ages.This book delves into how such demographic changes shape the supply of innovation and the demand for specific kinds of innovation in the Asia-Pacific. Social scientists from Asia and the United States offer multidisciplinary perspectives from economics, demography, political science, sociology, and public policy; topics range from the macroeconomic effects of population age structure, to the microeconomics of technology and the labor force, to the broader implications for human well-being. Contributors analyze how demography shapes productivity and the labor supply of older workers, as well as explore the aging population as consumers of technologies and drivers of innovations to meet their own needs, as well as the political economy of spatial development, agglomeration economies, urban-rural contrasts, and differential geographies of aging.

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The twin processes of integration and fragmentation have been the distinguishing features of contemporary globalization. Nowhere is this more strikingly evident than in the Asia Pacific. This first volume of a two-volume study concentrates on the geopolitical and economic transformation of Asia Pacific. It focuses on the complex relationship between the decline of ideological bipolarity, the rapid industrialization of East Asia and the tensions generated by the shifting balance of regional and global economic interests.Particular attention is devoted to the three major powers (the United States, China and Japan) and to a number of small and middle powers in particular Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia and Canada. Underpinning the entire analysis is the complex interplay of geopolitics, economy and culture.States, Markets and Civil Society in Asia Pacific is essential reading for scholars and researchers of Asia Pacific politics and economy. The coherent analysis will also ensure the books appeal to those in NGOs and government agencies affected by, or working in, the region.

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The study on ’Digital Trade Facilitation in Asia and the Pacific' reviews the state of play in implementation of trade facilitation and paperless trade in the Asia and the Pacific region. It also provides estimates of the trade cost reduction potential of trade facilitation implementation scenarios, from basic compliance with the WTO TFA to full digital trade facilitation. The stduy also includes a review of paperless trade provisions in regional trade agreements as well as an introduction to the Framework Agreement on the Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, as new tool to accelerate digital trade facilitation implementation in the region.

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The ongoing Pacific Profiles series presents the most accurate WWII profiles of aircraft which served throughout the South Pacific. Volume 10 covers the P-47D Thunderbolt which flew combat missions in the New Guinea theatre until mid-1945, serving with a total of eleven Fifth Air Force USAAF combat squadrons, Fifth Fighter Command and the Combat Replacement Training Center.Most profiles are presented for the first time, alongside an explanation of markings, including squadron heraldry and identifiers. Frequent airframe reassignments between units resulted in wide-ranging unit markings and nose art. Until now there has been a paucity of material about several units, especially those which entered the theatre after the infamous 348th Fighter Group. This volume also rectifies past misidentifications resulting from the widespread practice of swapping attractively decorated cowls, often commissioned for generous reward.Each profile is supported by photos and/or documentation, along with a brief aircraft history. Wide- ranging primary reference material is cited including official squadron records, colour movies, maintenance logs, diaries, wreck site inspections and multifarious reference photos including colour slides. A brief summary history of each unit and the rationale of its markings completes the text.The author is world-renown for his expertise on the Pacific air war. Never before have Pacific P-47s been illustrated with such colourful accuracy and detail.

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The ultimate source on fish hooks of the Pacific islands. The fish hook derives its form from its practical intention - to catch a fish. But in cultures where fishing is and always has been a main livelihood, the crafting of fish hooks becomes an art. "Fish Hooks of the Pacific islands Vol. II" completes the extensive and in-depth discourse of the first volume. Together they are the first extensive reference on Pacific fish hooks since the publication of Harry Beasley’s 1928 Pacific Island Record: Fishhooks, which was printed in an edition of only 250 copies. Much has been learned and discovered since then, and Fish Hooks of the Pacific Islands gathers it all under one title with comprehensive new observations, research, attributions, identifications and colour photographs. This publication is the product of a collaboration by private collectors who have a common dedication to the art and knowledge of old Pacific cultures. In the making of this book, they have brought together an incredible quantity of information as well as images and details of the finest known examples from collections all over the world.

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As America stands to the rest of the world, so stands California to America a shining promise of endless possibility. California is both dream and reality. Coastal California is for anyone who has felt the lure of a Pacific sunset. From the physical beauty of Monterey to the grandeur of Southern California, photographer Jake Rajs displays his skilful command of capturing the coastline and Pacific Ocean in every season and the land that is affected by it. Including such locations as Redwood National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, Sausalito, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, and Pacific Palisades, Coastal California is sure to be the gift book of the year for those who feel the rush of the Pacific Coast Highway and those who just dream of it.

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As the ecosystem-based trend in fisheries management continues to be implemented worldwide, a thorough background of this new management approach and resulting implementation strategies is needed. Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in the Western Pacific presents a full picture of the process changes used in switching from target species based management to EBFM, using a region that is at the forefront of this widely accepted movement. Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in the Western Pacific is the outgrowth of a series of three workshops convened by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management council. The book follows the logical approach of each workshop, beginning with an assessment of the current state of fisheries management, transitioning through the data sources and modeling systems used to advance EBFM, and ending with practical methodologies for more thorough global implementation in the future. Contributed by experts from the Pacific regions as well as the UK and Non-pacific States, this book is one of the first available compendiums on this important movement and will be applicable to fisheries scientists and researchers, fisheries managers, policy makers, and social scientists worldwide

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In the century from the death of Captain James Cook in 1779 to the rise of the sugar plantations in the 1870s, thousands of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) men left Hawai‘i to work on ships at sea and in na ‘aina ‘e (foreign lands)—on the Arctic Ocean and throughout the Pacific Ocean, and in the equatorial islands and California. Beyond Hawai‘i tells the stories of these forgotten indigenous workers and how their labor shaped the Pacific World, the global economy, and the environment. Whether harvesting sandalwood or bird guano, hunting whales, or mining gold, these migrant workers were essential to the expansion of transnational capitalism and global ecological change. Bridging American, Chinese, and Pacific historiographies, Beyond Hawai‘i is the first book to argue that indigenous labor—more than the movement of ships and spread of diseases—unified the Pacific World.

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Explore the epic art of Pacific Rim Uprising, the highly anticipated follow-up to the 2013 monster hit. The Art and Making of Pacific Rim Uprising takes readers behind the scenes and back into the heart of the epic battle between Kaiju and Jaegers. Showcasing the brilliant concept art behind the film and immersing fans in the creation of a true sci-fi epic, this book will be the ultimate exploration of one of the most anticipated films of 2018. Directed by Steven S. DeKnight, (Angel, Smallville, Daredevil), Pacific Rim Uprising stars John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Scott Eastwood (The Fate of the Furious), and newcomer Cailee Spaeny.

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Advances in Pacific Basin Business, Economics and Finance is an annual publication designed to focus on interdisciplinary research in finance, economics, and management among Pacific Rim countries. All articles published are reviewed and recommended by at least two members of the editorial board. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: 1. Policy and management on financial markets and financial institutions; 2. Options, futures and other derivatives markets; 3. Corporate finance and investment decisions; 4. Insurance and risk management; 5. Accounting, auditing and taxation; 6. Marketing, supply chain management, and business policies; 7. Artificial intelligence and new technology in finance; 8. Monetary and foreign exchange policy; 9. Income, employment and education; 10. Other economic policies among the Pacific Rim countries.

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Advances in Pacific Basin Business, Economics and Finance (APBBEF) is an annual series designed to focus on interdisciplinary research in finance, economics, and management among Pacific Rim countries. All articles published are reviewed and recommended by at least two members of the editorial board. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: 1. Policy and management on financial markets and financial institutions; 2. Options, futures, and other derivatives markets; 3. Corporate finance and investment decisions; 4. Insurance and risk management; 5. Accounting, auditing, and taxation; 6. Marketing, supply chain management, and business policies; 7. Artificial intelligence and new technology in finance; 8. Monetary and foreign exchange policy; 9. Income, employment, and education; 10. Other economic policies among the Pacific Rim countries. APBBEF is indexed in ABI/INFORM, EconLit, EBSCO, ProQuest, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar. Manuscript submission: mtyu@nctu.edu.tw.

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After the Second World War, maritime Asia recorded high levels of growth, thereby bringing the "Indo-Pacific" construct to prominence. The region`s intersecting interests, including those of major maritime trading and strategic powers, significantly shape developments across the globe. The landscape of the Indo-Pacific is strategically bound by India in the west (although in the future, it will inevitably stretch farther westwards to incorporate at least the eastern coast of the African continent), the US in the east, Japan and South Korea in the north, and Australia in the south. This region encompasses more than half the earth’s surface, supports more than half the world’s population, and contributes as much to the global GDP.

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The first comprehensive examination of how systems of government have emerged in the small and diverse developing island states of the Pacific Islands region, this study outlines the way in which government systems in the region have evolved from their pre-independence origins to their current political, constitutional, and public sector arrangements. Drawing on scholarship from the fields of law, history, anthropology, public policy, and public management, the author examines the ways in which culture, history, and the environment continue to influence contemporary policy challenges and policy processes in these states. Recognising the significant challenges that small states face in terms of human and economic development, as well as how they must navigate between autonomy and self-reliance in some sectors, yet supra-national collaboration in others, the author argues that the future prosperity of the Pacific Islands region and the countries within it is not yet assured. Their economies struggle to keep pace with population growth and public aspirations, and service delivery in key sectors is often inadequate. Indeed, the fundamental challenge facing the Pacific Islands’ leaders and governments is ensuring the adoption of policies and methods of implementation that, ultimately, pave the way for their continued development within the emerging global order.

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This publication informs inter-governmental and inter-agency regional decision making in support of implementing the 2030 Agenda in the region. It highlights areas where progress has been made concerning Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and areas that need collective decisions for prioritizing acceleration or changing trends. It provides an effective communication tool to foster inclusive regional consultations and effective engagement of the stakeholders including media and civil society. The report uses cross-nationally comparable data from the ESCAP database on the proposed SDGs indicator framework as well as statistics available at the regional and sub-regional levels.

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This is the first book to examine the contemporary seasonal migration of Pacific islanders to Australia through the Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP). It reflects on this new age of guestwork from a broad social, economic, political and cultural perspective in both source countries and destinations. In so doing, it offers a critical perspective on different phases of managed labour migration from nineteenth century practices of ‘blackbirding’ to the present day. This book examines why and how guestworker policies and programmes have developed, and the impact this has had in Australia and for the people, villages and islands of the sending states. It particularly focuses on Vanuatu, the main source of labour, and draws upon studies based in Australia, Vanuatu and other Pacific Island countries. The book therefore traces new patterns of migration, with intriguing economic and social consequences, that are restructuring parts of rural and regional Australia in response to labour demands from agriculture and evolving regional geopolitics.

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This study builds on a report CSIS published in 2020 on ways the United States can partner with allies and partners to enhance democratic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region. This follow-on effort includes case studies on the democracy support efforts of Australia, Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan; comparisons of democracy support strategies; data on official development assistance (ODA) funding related to democracy broadly defined; and recommendations for ways the United States can coordinate democracy support initiatives in the region with like-minded partners as well as regional networks and institutions.

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In this singular collection, indigenous experts describe the social welfare systems of fifteen East Asian and Pacific Island nations and locales. Vastly understudied, these lands offer key insight into the successes and failures of Western and native approaches to social work, suggesting new directions for practice and research in both local and global contexts. Combining international experiences and professional knowledge, contributors illuminate the role of history and culture in shaping the social welfare systems of Cambodia, China, Hong Kong (SAR, China), Indonesia, Malaysia, the Micronesian region (including the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam [Unincorporated Territory, U.S.A.], Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands [Commonwealth, U.S.A.], and Palau), Samoa and American Samoa (Unincorporated Territory, U.S.A.), South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The contributors link the values and issues that concern populaces most to the development of social work practice, policy, and research. Sharlene B. C. L. Furuto then conducts a comparative analysis of the essays including their data and social service programs, highlighting the similarities and differences between the evolution of social welfare in these nations and locales. She contrasts their indigenous approaches, the responses of governments and NGOs to social issues, the availability of social work education, as well as API models, paradigms, and templates, and the overall status of the social work profession. Furuto also adds a chapter comparing the distinct social welfare systems of Samoa and American Samoa. The only volume to focus exclusively on social welfare in East Asia and the Pacific, this anthology holds immense value for practitioners and researchers eager for global perspectives.

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America's Few delves into the history of US Marine Corps aviation in World War II, following the feats of the Corps’ top-scoring aces in the skies over Guadalcanal. Marine Corps aviation began in 1915, functioning as a self-contained expeditionary force. During the interwar period, the support of USMC amphibious operations became a key element of Marine aviation doctrine, and the small force gradually grew. But in December 1941 came the rude awakening. Within hours of Pearl Harbor, heroic Marine aviators were battling the Japanese over Wake Island. In the South Pacific, the aviators of the US Marine Corps came out of the shadows to establish themselves as an air force second to none. In the summer of 1942, when Allied airpower was cobbled together into a single unified entity – nicknamed 'the Cactus Air Force’ – Marine Aviation dominated, and a Marine, Major General Roy Geiger, was its commander. Of the twelve Allied fighter squadrons that were part of the Cactus Air Force, eight were USMC squadrons. It was over Guadalcanal that Joe Foss emerged as a symbol of Marine aviation. As commander of VMF-121, he organized a group of fighter pilots that downed 72 enemy aircraft; Foss himself reached a score of 26. Pappy Boyington, meanwhile, had become a Marine aviator in 1935. Best known as the commander of VMF-214, he came into his own in late 1943 and eventually matched Foss’s aerial victory score. Through the parallel stories of these two top-scoring fighter aces, as well as many other Marine aces, such as Ken Walsh (21 victories), Don Aldrich (20), John L. Smith (19), Wilbur Thomas (18.5), and Marion Carl (18.5), many of whom received the Medal of Honor, acclaimed aviation historian Bill Yenne examines the development of US Marine Corps aviation in the South Pacific.

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A well-known fairy tale takes on a new twist!Once upon a time on the shore of the Salish Sea lived a bold, brave young girl bursting with the spirit of adventure. When she inherits a red-velvet cape her mother wore as a child, she sets off on a journey through the woods to bring her great-grandmother a surprise for her birthday. Who does she meet along the way? A wolf, who has a surprise of his own!This well-known Grimms' fairy tale takes on a new twist in a Pacific Northwest setting. A young girl who lives by the Salish Sea inherits a red-velvet cape and the nickname Little Red Riding Hood from her mother when she's old enough to venture out on her own. As Little Red goes off on her first solo adventure to surprise her great-grandmother, who lives deep in the woods, her mother reminds her to stick to the trail around the mountain. And to watch out for wolves! But Little Red quickly forgets her mother's advice! A big wolf, who seems so friendly, convinces her to take a shortcut over a mountain. So off she goes in a new direction, meeting other animals who assist her on the way, never suspecting that the wolf is making his own plans to visit her great-grandmother's house with a big surprise!

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