Pacific cult hails second coming of its wealthy US messiah

[RogueTrooper]

Has this been done?

Followers of a South Pacific cult, who worship a mythical Second World War American serviceman they hope will one day return bearing riches, believe that their prayers have been answered.

For 60 years, the bizarre John Frum movement on Tanna, in the Vanuatu archipelago, has believed that the great wealth or "cargo" that the United States military brought to their island home in wartime will one day miraculously return.

They worship a messiah-like figure, John (or Jon) Frum, thought to be a combination of an ancient spirit and wartime GIs based on Tanna who introduced themselves to locals as "John from America".

Carrying wooden "rifles", and with the letters USA daubed in red paint on their bare chests, they have paraded for decades in home-made GI uniforms beneath a tattered Stars and Stripes in the hope of somehow persuading the US government to bring back the wealth.

Something for the anthropologists.