I jst saw the R&H musical “South Pacific”-and I wonder how important the area was, before the war.
There were islands having copra production, palm oil, some fishing, etc.
But economically, the region was pretty poor, and of little significaqnce to the world economy.
The K, and France had some colonies there-but they seem to have been pretty backward.
So, otside of their obvious strategic value, was the SP a place of any importance?
Pretty much the definition of backwater I would suppose. Not terribly important economically to the western powers other than as you pointed out strategic importance. This lack of importance to the west was part of the reasoning behind Japan’s aggressive expansionism; they thought that most people would not care if they just took it over.
Do you count Malaysia as part of the S. Pacific? Malaysia was already an oil-exporting region. Capturing this resource was Japan’s main motivation for establishing the “Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Rubber was also a hugely important resource for the region. In fact, the rubber was more vital than the oil since we could still get oil from other locations but rubber had to be grown in the tropics and South America can’t produce rubber so well. Brazilian rubber plantations fall victim to insects and diseases that naturally prey on the trees but which are absent in Malaysia.
coconuts, we never would have gone to war if FDR wasn’t beholding to the candy companies.
also rubber.
The Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem MA has a huge collection of items picked up from the China trade that came from the South Pacific. Certainly they wouldn’t have if there was nothing there.
If nothing else, the islands were important stopover points for water and provisions, and later as stations for repair, refitting, and fueling when that became important. The attack on Pearl Harbor wouldn’t have occurred, after all, if that harbor hadn’t been in use as a naval base, with a very well-developed base of operations prior to the start of the war.
The islands were a source for plants – pineapple and macadamia were pretty famously grown in Hawaii. the Bounty mutiny occurred wheh tha ship went to obtain breadfruit plants for use as a food source on other islands, particularly in the Caribbean (most places don’t tell you the details, but Jules Verne gives a description of the fruiit and its use in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The project to use breadfruiot to feed Caribbean slaves, by the way, was a massive failurwe). I’m certan there were other plants, like coconuts, that were of importance.
Outside of Malaysia and the Philippines, not very much. There was plenty of trade with the area, but not at a level that was of any great importance at a strategic level. Rubber was the big item, as noted, and that was limited to specific areas. Tahiti and Samoa et al were of no consequence whatsoever.
Setting aside oil and rubber intersts in and around Malaysia, the islands Japan occupied or tried to occupy (Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Midway, etc), especially those further away from the Japanese mainland, provided access to airstrips. These would have been necessary to defend their expasion.
Bird shit.
Phosphate mining began on Nauru at the turn of the 20th century.
I’m re-reading Maugham’s short stories now, and he keeps mentioning “copra” as the important crop (?) in the economy. It’s sufficient for the stories simply to understand that, but I have to admit I have no idea what copra is, or how it’s used. Do we call it something else these days?
Dried coconut. Coconut oil is more important than you might think:
It’s dried coconut stuff, a material I’ve mentioned upstream
From what I’ve heard, the main reason for claiming various South Pacific islands was geography not economics. Navies needed spots were they could establish fuel and supply depots while cruising around the oceans.
As I stated in entry #5
Question is, how far before do you mean. Petroleum from Borneo was very useful in WWII, it could be pumped out, and used as ship fuel without refining. During WWI and afterward, many nations had large navies that needed fuel. But I don’t know exactly when ocean-going coal fired steamships gave way to diesel engines for ships.
The major naval powers switched to oil burning for their combatants in the 20’s and 30’s.
Reciprocating engines started giving way to turbine driven plants at the turn of the last century, although that switchover was slower.
That’s a bit surprising to me – I thought turbines had massive advantages over reciprocating engines.
Yeah, but you can imagine a private shipping owner wanting to squeeze ever last bit of use out of his existing ships before spending huge loads on new, turbine-powered ships.
Either was a big advance on a sailboat, though. 
You forgot Indonesia, which was then the Dutch East Indies:
On 10 January 1942, during the Dutch East Indies Campaign, Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies as part of the Pacific War.[82] The rubber plantations and oil fields of the Dutch East Indies were considered crucial for the Japanese war effort
says wiki…
I assume that basically the south Pacific was a giant game of Risk or Diplomacy; each country saw what happened to the others who managed to grab parts of the Americas, south Asia, the Indonesian archipelago, Australia and finally Africa; colonies, resources, military bases etc.
As far as actual economic value, other than tourism, the polynesian islands are pretty much still backwaters economically. Some of the areas (like Indonesian area and its mineral wealth) may be valuable, but that’s not really SOuth Pacific. Hong Kong (or Shanghai’s international zone) were islands of enforced stability in a changable environment, but nowhere near as important economically as they are today. (and also technically not South Pacific).