Tulagi was the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate between 1897 and 1942. The British withdrawal from the island during the Pacific War, its capture by the Japanese and the American reconquest left the island’s facilities damaged beyond repair. After the war, Britain moved the capital to the American military base on Guadalcanal, which became Honiara. The Tulagi settlement was an enclave of several small islands, the permanent population of which was never more than 600: 300 foreigners—one-third of European origin and most of the remainder Chinese—and an equivalent number of Solomon Islanders. Thousands of Solomon Islander males also passed through on their way to work on plantations and as boat crews, hospital patients and prisoners. The history of the Tulagi enclave provides an understanding of the origins of modern Solomon Islands. Tulagi was also a significant outpost of the British Empire in the Pacific, which enables a close analysis of race, sex and class and the process of British colonisation and government in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

He survived Pearl Harbor. He survived Tulagi. He survived the wilds of Africa and the steaming jungles of Central America. This is just one chapter from the extraordinary life of Thomas J. Larson. Ensign "Swede" Larson arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 5th, 1941. He was Executive Officer on YP 109 (Yacht Patrol) through a great storm from Long Beach, California. He was transferred to CinCPac staff, and on December 7th, 1941, was delivering messages to Admiral Kimmel and his staff when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He served with Admiral Chester Nimitz until July 1942, then was assigned to Admiral Ghormley's ComSoPac staff in New Caledonia. On November 30th, he was flown to Guadalcanal, and then next day went to Tulagi as a communicator. He ended the war on the USS Lexington aircraft carrier going into Tokyo Bay in late August of 1945. His peace time career was as an explorer, and professor of Anthropology with many years of field research in Africa. He has degrees from UC Berkeley, MA American U, M Litt Oxford, PhD University of Virginia.