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How did men enlist, and what were they like when they returned?
Taipari Munro explains how the war affected the young Māori men who enlisted and returned home.
Translation
The recruiters’ advice was that, when you reached 18 years, you were able to enlist to go to war. Some of my uncles, however, were only 12 or 13 years old, but because they were so keen to go to war, off they went. They went. They would lie to the recruiters about their age, telling them they were older, so they could get away to the war. So some of my uncles went to war under false pretences. But when they came back, the elders said they could see they had become men. They had been hardened by battle. They joined the heat of battle at its most intense, some died fighting, some came back.