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Annotate the following article    John Frum: The Bizarre Island Religion That Worships an American GI By Gabe Paoletti   Famed science fiction author Arthur C

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John Frum: The Bizarre Island Religion That Worships an American GI

By Gabe Paoletti

 

Famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once said that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." This saying was proven true when previously uncontacted Pacific Islander tribes were awestruck by American technology after encountering the United States military during World War II.

As part of the U.S. campaign against Japan, American troops landed on hundreds of islands in the South Pacific. This was part of the tactic of "island hopping," in which troops would focus on occupying small, lightly guarded but strategically important islands throughout the Pacific. These islands would ultimately provide a path for the U.S. military to invade Japan, while bypassing many of the latter's fortified island positions. Avoiding these major islands meant that the U.S. came into contact with many island nations that had had little to no contact with the outside world ever before.

As the U.S. set up bases on these islands, previously uncontacted tribes witnessed, for the first time, things like airplanes, manufactured goods, modern medicine, guns, and canned food. Soon, cults worshiping the goods and machines brought by American soldiers appeared in islands across the Pacific. One such place was Tanna, a small island located in what is now Vanuatu. The islanders had been in contact with foreign nations previously, being colonized by the British, but they had not been exposed to the mass-produced goods of the modern age.

When thousands of American G.I.s moved onto the island during World War II, the people were shocked by them and the goods they brought. In response to the miraculous supplies held by these foreigners, the people of Tanna blended their previous beliefs, including a volcano god called Keraperamun and an anti-colonialist cult, with these new experiences and created what's known as the John Frum cargo cult.

The members of the John Frum cargo cult worship a god called John Frum, usually depicted as an American G.I. in uniform. Some believe that the name "John Frum" is a corruption of the larger phrase "John from America." Another cult on the same island worships a god called Tom Navy. The members of the John Frum cargo cult did not see these foreign troops as a new god, but rather as an extension of their own ancestors or deities.

When World War II came to a close, and American soldiers went back home, the members of these cargo cults continued to worship these modern gods. Many of them believed that these gods would return and bring a greater bounty of cargo. The John Frum cargo cult built symbolic runways across their island complete with wooden air control towers to attract their god back. They also built life-size replicas of airplanes out of wood and straw.

In 1957, the John Frum movement developed the Tanna Army, a non-violent organization that engages in military parades to emulate the mannerisms of the American soldiers that had once been on the island. The members of this squad wear red, white, and blue and participate in a parade on February 15^th every year.

Though most of these cargo cults have died off, as more and more people are exposed to the modern outside world, the John Frum cargo cult still survives. The origins of their god have become less important, and adherents are now mainly attracted to the movement because of the community that it has helped build over the past 70 years.