As a follow-up, were they aware of global events to any extent? Were they abused by Japanese or American soldiers? Were they inadvertently the victims of battles?
I can't speak for the rest of the Pacific, but the Papa New Guinean tribes hold a special place in Australian soldiers hearts.
The Japanese landed on the north side of Papa New Guinea, with a plan to march south over the mountains and take Port Moresby. Port Moresby was a critical port, and would allow the Japanese to threaten Australia directly for the first time. The resulting Kokoda Track Campaign fought between the Australian and Japanese forces was a gruelling series of battles, in some of the most treacherous terrain in the world.
Papa and New Guinea (as it was then known) were under Australian administration. The local tribesman that lived in the mountain range were enlisted as porters, carrying ammunition and supplies up to the front, and evacuating the sick and wounded. They were affectionally known as the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels', for their care and compassion.
Many a mother in Australia
when the busy day is done,
Sends a prayer to the Almighty
for the keeping of her son;
Asking that an Angel guide him
and bring him safely back -
Now we see those prayers are answered
on the Owen Stanley track.
For they haven't any haloes
only holes slashed through the ear
And their faces worked by tattoos
with scratch pins in their hair:
Bringing back the badly wounded
just as steady as a horse,
Using leaves to keep the rain off
and as gentle as a nurse
Slow and careful in bad places
on the awful mountain track
The look upon their faces
Would make you think that Christ was black
Not a move to hurt the wounded
as they treat him like a saint
It's a picture worth recording
that an artist's yet to paint
Many a lad will see his mother
and husbands see their wives
Just because the fuzzy wuzzy
carried them to save their lives
From mortar bombs and machine gun fire
or chance surprise attacks
To the safety and the care of doctors
at the bottom of the track
May the mothers of Australia
when they offer up a prayer.
Mention these impromptu angels
with their fuzzy wuzzy hair
A famous poem by Sapper Bert Beros
Iʻll just drop a few recommendations here at the top:
So, the Pacific is a huge expanse. With any answer I can give, YMMV by quite a bit.
So first off, were islanders aware of what was going on? So if we are talking about Pacific Islanders as Maori, Hawaiians, Tahitians, then yes they were definitely aware of the war and its global nature- in fact many of them served in theatres across the globe as part of allied armies. Samoa, Tonga, Fiji- all had reliable connections to the outside world and would have therefor been aware of global events... the question is really whether or not non-elites in any of the societies really gave much thought to what was going on elsewhere. The war was largely a distant affair that only came up in newspapers, letters from distant friends, business associates, or family. On some islands like Guam, the Philippines, or in Port Moresby on Papua New Guinea, there was no way to avoid the looming threat of war leading up to open hostilities, there was military build ups on both sides, and violent military action heralded the opening of the war. Both Guam and the Philippines maintained active resistance to Japanese occupation (though for different reasons). In Nan-yo, or the Japanese Pacific (all of the Carolones & Marianas islands except Guam), information was generally pretty guarded. Japan had fortified the islands against their League of Nations mandate. Japan brought thousands of colonists to the islands as well, and, like most colonial powers, were not necessarily interested in integrating islander populations. Japanese was taught in schools- there was definitely an attempt to bring Japanese culture to the islanders- but it was a long game- and most populations had some level of segregation. So information was necessarily as forth coming- the global nature of the war may have been unknown, but its Pacific context, was likely easier to grasp- or witness first hand as Japan fortified and brought more troops down for the defense of the island empire.
Were islanders abused? Yes; and by both sides at various times and for varying rationales. Though they weren't always intentionally mistreated-- I mean, we can't forget for most islanders this is a colonial war. It was between various powers intent on claiming their islands and who had little problem appropriating land and resources. There is a remarkable sadness that comes out in some islander accounts for the nature of the fighting in that, here were these young men, coming and fighting and dying on islands that were never even theirs. It appeared as pointless. What need did the Japanese or the Aussies or the Americans have for someone else's island or reef?
So abuse can take many forms. In Micronesia with the Japanese it took the form of comfort women, it was starvation and the appropriation of food for the Japanese soldiers when times became tough- the threat of violence if the islanders took fruit from their own trees, it was the intentional killing of islanders like in Palau where islanders were forced into a cave that was grenaded and collapsed, it was forced relocation off sensitive military sites. With Americans and allied forces, it could be forced relocation (forced segregation for fears that islanders carried diseases fatal to whites- yes that thought stream still existed "Natives and Exotics" is a recent book taking this up), massive land appropriation for bases and airfields, the longest lasting "abuse" that came from allied powers was free food. The allied war effort wasn't terribly interested in helping recover island agriculture and so massive amounts of free food were imported to islands and given out for free. This is clearly a humanitarian inclination- but it never stopped, it continued long after the war and created a pretty terrible cycle of dependency and saw a remarkable decline in the health of islanders as imported canned/tinned meats and rice were simply not a healthy diet.
Inadvertently victims of the battles? Definitely. Especially in Micronesia or in the Solomon Islands- there was no way to avoid the fighting. Chuuk (or Truk) Lagoon in the modern Federated States of Micronesia is one of the greatest (imo) scuba diving adventures one can go on. The Japanese navy used Chuuk as a major base and so it saw extensive bombing by American warplanes as part of Operation Hailstone. There are so many sunken ships in the lagoon- and across the islands of the lagoon there are still numerous bits of wreckage from the three days of sustained bombing. There was simply no way for Chuukese to avoid being caught in the cross fire- many of them had been drafted into support positions for the Japanese (longshoremen, ditch digging, and the like). So yes, when fighting came to the islands, there was often no where to hide, no way to avoid the bombing.
As I said at the beginning, YMMV with any of my answers, encompassing the entire Pacific is difficult in the best of times, and the war was experienced so differently even between neighboring islands. Any of the Falgout, Poyer, and Carucci books at the top would be a great place to start if anyone wanted to read more- they are anthropologists who have gone out and collected stories from islanders who lived the war.