Hollywoods South Seas and the Pacific War Searching for Dorothy Lamour [Paperback]

This book explores the expectations, experiences, and reactions of Allied servicemen and women who served in the wartime Pacific and viewed the South Pacific through the lens of Hollywood's South Seas. Based on extensive archival research, it explores the intersections between military experiences and cultural history.Pardon My Sarong: Dorothy Lamour's Legacy  The Wartime Search for the South Seas  Through Hollywood's Lens: Prewar Visions of the South Pacific  Wartime Tourists on a Hollywood Jungle Set: Anticipating the South Seas and Encountering the South Pacific  'Dorothy Lamour Syndrome': South Seas Dreams and South Pacific Disappointments  'That Gal's Getting Whiter Every Day': Servicemen's Encounters with Native Women  Combating South Seas Disillusionment: A South Pacific Education  'Solitary Jewels' or 'Brazen, Shameless Hussies'?: Allied Women at War  'Black White Men': African-American Encounters with the Wartime Pacific Rainbow Island: Wartime Hollywood and the South Seas  South Seas Savior: James A. Michener and Postwar Visions of the South Pacific  The Queen of the Hollywood Islands

Soldiers and sailors from the US, Australia, and New Zealand who fought in the South Seas were united by their military service against the Japanese and by their preconceived notion of what they expected to find when they arrived in the war zone. Service personnel were, in a sense, engaged in war tourism; while expecting sandy beaches and hula girls, they usually found a much grimmer world. The authors assert that the gap between expectation and reality often caused cognitive dissonance bordering on psychological trauma. Recommended. - CHOICE

A fascinating, compelling look inside the Pacific War, with terrific new material on issues of gender and race during that pivotal time. - William H. Chafe, Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History, Duke University, formlsÃ