You may like ignoring them every time you zoom past on the road but during the 1940s, Suva’s network of bomb shelters served a serious purpose.
With the rage of World War II and the subsequent bombing of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, the threat of a Japanese invasion of the Pacific, including Fiji, became real.
So before he later retired in 1942, Governor Sir Harry Charles Luke warned Fiji’s Legislative Council about this impending danger.
Ultimately, New Zealand and American soldiers were deployed here, the size of our military was increased and Fiji soldiers were sent to fight in the Solomons, coastal gun batteries were established and other infrastructure was set up at strategic points around the country.
One of the strategic responses carried out within the Suva Town boundary was the construction of bomb or air raid shelters and tunnels.
This was done to protect citizens against bombs dropped from enemy bomber planes. Many of these shelters can still be seen today while a few have been sealed or covered by overgrowth.
The Fiji Times of December 6, 1956 said during WWII the capital was divided into sections overseen by a warden, a few of whom were females.
“It was decided immediately the construction of air raid shelters in places which would serve the population,” the paper noted. Some of the places where shelters were dug out of soapstone included Nina St, Robertson Rd, Holland St, certain places in Toorak and Waimanu Rd.
They were equipped with seats, communications equipment, emergency food and water, as well as space for pregnant women.
Special shelters that could cater for hundreds of people were also constructed under hospitals at Waimanu Rd and Tamavua. Today, one of the most visible series of air raid shelters is located along the Kings Rd end of Cunningham Rd.
(For more on this wartime article read it in the Soul Living section of The Sunday Times).
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