Bougainville: Nissan Island – Exploring the Island
The locals offered to show us a Japanese WWII military plane crash site someplace deep in the island’s jungle, so we went on a full island exploration to find it. Nissan was a major staging point for the US and allied forces during the war and Richard Nixon served here (supposedly popular with locals). The US actually relocated the entire population for a time period and then brought them back. We found several pieces of the Japanese plane – mostly engine and propeller parts. Along the way, there was plenty of scenes of island life – thatch-roofed and -walled houses, friendly locals, a church, and house with traditional masks, stone pillars, lots of stunning jungle flora.
