The Merchant Marine Pacific War Zone medal is awarded to crewmembers of U.S. merchant marine vessels that served in the North and South Pacific and Indian Oceans, east of 80 degrees east longitude, in the period beginning with the Pearl Harbor attack and 2 March 1946. Emblazoned with “PACIFIC WAR ZONE,” the medal features a trident—a longstanding emblem of naval might and prowess—at the tip of a bamboo shoot, indicating service in the Pacific Theater of Operations. The background consists of a seascape dotted with merchant ships.
World War II service in the Merchant Marine was often unheralded when compared to duty in one of the Armed Forces of the United States, but in fact the Merchant Marine suffered a fatality rate higher than that of even the United States Marine Corps (1 in 26 as opposed to 1 in 34 for the Marines). The vulnerability of Merchant Marine vessels was especially apparent in the Pacific after the Japanese introduced kamikaze attacks in October 1944.
Although the first “official” kamikaze missions were not launched until 25 October 1944, the Merchant Marine ship Augustus Thomas, which had been chartered by the U.S. Army Transport Service, became one of the first victims of a Kamikaze attack when a Betty dive bomber crashed into it and ignited its cargo of aviation gas and ammo on 24 October; amazingly, all aboard survived the attack and explosion. The worst loss of life on a Merchant Marine vessel came on 28 December, when the SS John Burke was hit by a kamikaze while transporting ammunition to Mindoro in the Philippines, detonating its and claiming the lives of 40 Merchant Marines and nearly 30 armed guards.