During the Battle of the Green Islands in the Pacific War, about 120 Japanese soldiers were killed in action and wiped out. Bodies of Japanese soldiers killed by New Zealand and American troops littered the jungle.

　　During the Battle of the Green Islands in the Pacific War, about 120 Japanese soldiers were killed in action and were annihilated. The bodies of Japanese soldiers killed by New Zealand and U.S. forces were scattered in the jungles of Green Island. Nissan Island, the largest of the Greenland Islands, also known as Green Island, was horseshoe-shaped. The remaining Japanese troops fought to the death, and were annihilated and crushed, with no one surrendering.

　The invasion of the Green Islands broke out from February 15 to February 20, 1944, when approximately 5,800 New Zealand and US allied troops landed on Green Island. The Green Islands are a small island located about 200 kilometers directly east of Rabaul and northwest of Buka Island. The Japanese force consisted of 12 naval observers and about 80 army personnel from Hitoshi Imamura's 8th Area Army, which had landed by submarine in early February. This small force was further augmented, reaching about 120 men. An air base was established in the Green Islands to bomb Kavieng on New Ireland Island. There was a Japanese naval lookout post in the Green Islands, and the southeast fleet in Rabaul, sensing signs of an Allied landing, hurriedly dispatched a squadron of Japanese land forces. In about three days of fighting, they were almost completely wiped out. The Japanese made a final counterattack on February 19.

　When the Allied forces landed on the coast on February 15 and set up positions, the Japanese forces around Shiroto Island resisted for a short time. The next day, February 16, New Zealand troops began to cross the island and invade inland. Around a church on the southern tip of the island near Tanaheran, they encountered a group of about 70 Japanese troops. The Japanese group was overrun in a few days by New Zealand troops supported by tanks, killing about 62 Japanese soldiers; further ground fighting took place on February 19, and on February 20, Green Island was finally declared safe and retaken from a completely outnumbered Japanese force of about 120 to 150 men. Although organized Japanese resistance ceased on February 23, mopping-up operations continued until the end of February. About 120 of the total Japanese soldiers were killed in all. Allied casualties were 13 killed and 26 wounded.