Following upon the Pacific War there was a period when it seemed that the USA had assumed the role of Pacific region dictator, and there was a brief period of concerned activity when a suggestion was made that the US Navy was going to take over the phosphate mining on Nauru. The matter was complicated by the fact that the US Navy was able to dictate when and how Nauru (and Ocean Island) were to be recovered from the Japanese. A flurry of diplomatic activity got under way while at the same time BPC officials were briefing the US Command as to the best way to plan an assault on the islands (that never came off)