INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: US marines and sailors dance with Kiwi women at the Majestic Cabaret in Wellington in this photograph scanned from the book Brief Encounter by Jock Phillips.

Next year marks 70 years since the "American Invasion", when thousands of United States servicemen, often fresh from the horror of war, landed in New Zealand.

Their arrival in 1942 – at a time when large numbers of New Zealand armed forces were serving in Europe as Japan entered the war – was to change the cultural landscape.

Amid the fear of a Japanese invasion, many Kiwis were pleased to see the GIs but the cultural clash would sometimes prove too much.

The easy-going warmth and charm of the Americans – in New Zealand for training on their way to war or taking in rest and relaxation – seemed to captivate women and irritate men – "overpaid, oversexed and over here" was the disparaging phrase.

The Dominion Post has delved into little-known files at Archives NZ to reveal details previously obscured by the veil of history.

Perhaps the most well-known fray between US and local servicemen was the infamous "Battle of Manners St"on April 3, 1943. Shrouded in mystery for decades because of a government-ordered press blackout, the archives reveal how brawls erupted through the inner city after four or five merchant seamen decided to"clean up" several US servicemen. The battle is revealed to be a series of vicious scraps that started at the Allied Services Club in Manners St about 6pm and took eight hours to quell.

"The civil and military police no sooner got one disturbance settled than it broke out in a fresh place," the military report said. Another memorandum, called "Fracas in Wellington", told of how other US marines and local soldiers soon joined the stoush, egged on by civilian loafers and a rough element who were "always trying to cause trouble". "Thereafter sporadic disturbances broke out near Royal Oak corner, up Cuba St and in the vicinity of the amusement ground in Courtenay Place."

By 1944, the exasperation felt by many New Zealand servicemen towards the US troops was obvious.

The secretary of the Auckland Returned Services Association wrote to the defence minister appealing for intervention after several incidents of rampant "hooliganism" by the US servicemen.

"You have doubtless read reports of disturbances and actual cases of hooliganism committed in Auckland and other cities by American servicemen. At a dance recently held in Avondale, a number of these servicemen attended with bouquets of flowers which at a later stage they stripped and disclosed blackjacks [small clubs]. (It is notable that when attacks are made by these men, sometimes brutal attacks, they are made by a number of Americans against a single person.)"

He requested that the US authorities be contacted and asked to adopt "stronger and greater measures" towards the troops and to prohibit them from carrying blackjacks and knives.

Perhaps the most violent, large-scale example of discontent between Maori soldiers and the Americans is illustrated by the little known and racially motivated Cuba St "disturbance".

The stoush erupted in Cuba St on May 12, 1945 – just four days after VE Day – when as many as 150 Maori soldiers and an unknown number of US Navy personnel clashed.

Police concluded, after interviewing Maori servicemen involved in the fight, that the brawl began at the Mayfair cabaret after several Maori found their hats had been stolen and suspected the Americans. One of the Maori servicemen, seeing they were outnumbered, ran to the Ngati-Poneke Club, in the Hotel Cecil in Lambton Quay, to raise the alarm. An unofficial Maori guard, apparently armed with bayonets, left the club and ran to help his comrades.

"It is apparent that Maori soldiers bear a deep resentment of US servicemen, the chief cause of which is the disparaging and humiliating treatment of the Maori by US personnel," Brigadier A Conway wrote. "It is apparent that US personnel do not appreciate the standing that the Maori has in our community and are inclined to treat him as they treat the American negro."

Batons and fists were the weapons of choice and at one point American soldiers in the cabaret above the street threw chairs on to the road which were used as improvised weapons. A US Jeep was damaged beyond repair and an American doctor was pelted with stones as he tried to help.

AN AMERICAN was taken to hospital with facial wounds and a Maori soldier with his head bleeding was found in Lambton Quay.

Military reports state police discovered the root cause of the problem lay in the treatment of Maori by the Americans.

"Maoris from whom statements were taken allege they have been insulted by the Americans and have been told by Americans not to ride in the same tramcars and that they should walk via back streets etc, that the Americans call them black curs etc and have generally insulted the Maori race."

Brigadier Conway spoke to a senior US lieutenant commander about the fray. "I ... suggested that the US authorities should make it clear to all US personnel touching these shores that the Maoris receive different treatment in this country from what the negroes receive in the United States."

The late Private Darcy Nepia, a member of the 28th Maori Battalion, fought in the "Battle of Manners St" and remembered the tensions between Maori and US troops.

In March 1944, Mr Nepia embarked for Egypt and on the way stopped in Fremantle, Australia. An American troop ship was also in port.

Mr Nepia, then 17, and fellow Maori troops encountered the Americans at a pub, he told historian Monty Soutar in the book Nga Tama Toa.

"One in battle outfit ran past me when I went to the toilet and in a cubicle I found one of our men had been stabbed. I helped him to the street and asked someone to call an ambulance. When I got back inside I found another of our boys had been stabbed and the Yanks were against the wall whirling their web belts around their heads and slashing with knives at anyone who got in the way."

Five of the men were knifed, but it was Reg Hooper of Tolaga Bay – stabbed in the ribs – who fared worst. "I put my hand on the wound to stop it bleeding and the suction from the wound held my hand in ... I walked with him until they put him into surgery," Mr Nepia said.

"They put a flat steel plate under my hand and my hand came off and that's when the air got in and he died instantly."

Four US soldiers were later convicted of murder at a trial in Fremantle.

Dr Soutar, historian and co-ordinator of the 28th Maori Battalion project, said the Maori troops would have been incensed by their treatment by some of the Americans.

Historian Jock Phillips said there was a cultural clash between the Americans and New Zealand troops: "The Americans were a bit more sophisticated and had more money to spend ... "They were charming, they gave the women flowers, they were sometimes referred to as the "bedroom commandos" – it was a bit of a challenge for the more repressed New Zealand men."

Next year, after an invitation from Prime Minister John Key a ceremonial US Marine contingent will visit New Zealand shores as a thank-you for their support during World War II.

The colour question

Britain offered New Zealand candid advice on avoiding embarrassing moments between white and black United States servicemen visiting these shores, confidential papers reveal.

The head of the prime minister's office, Sir Carl Berendsen, received a secret cable in February 1943 from the British high commission outlining its stance towards American "negro troops".

"With a view to avoiding incidents and to giving discreet guidance to members of the United Kingdom forces, it was decided to circulate a private and confidential memorandum to senior army and air force officers ... it is thought this might be of interest to the New Zealand authorities."

An assistant secretary of the war cabinet, Foss Shanahan, later gave the documents to local chief military staff.

Called "The colour problem as the American sees it", the first document is a concise history of slavery, cotton growing and the changing face of US race relations, concluding the problem was "very complicated".

"It can be seen therefore that any attempt to break down the various forms of social regulation accepted by the average American family, white or coloured, is not likely to achieve any good purpose but on the contrary might well lead to trouble and even violence, especially where women are concerned."

The other document was a confidential memo proffering "practical advice" to any servicemen who encountered coloured American troops.

"The Americans are making a great experiment in working out a democratic way of life ... It is a difficult task and it is not for us to embarrass them, even if we have different views on how race relationships should be treated in our own country and in the empire."

IT WAS important to understand the American point of view and troops should always be on guard against giving offence, the memo concluded.

It finished with several tips: "Be friendly and sympathetic towards the coloured American troops – but remember that they are not accustomed in their own country to close and intimate relationships with white people," and "if you find yourself in the company of white and coloured American troops (as, for example, if white American troops come into a canteen or bar where you are in the company of coloured Americans) make it your business to avoid unpleasantness. It is much the best, however, to avoid such situations."