The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii - Hardcover

Bailey, Beth; Farber, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0029012228 ISBN 13: 9780029012222

Publisher: Free Press, 1992

Synopsis

Documents, diaries, memoirs, and interviews evoke the atmosphere of wartime Hawaii in a work that discusses the experiences of American soldiers based on Hawaiian islands during World War II.

About this title

From Library Journal:

Hawaii during World War II was the "first strange place" for most of the hordes of soldiers and war workers who came from all over the United States. They expected balmy beaches and hula girls but instead found paradise under martial law. Their interaction with one another and with the locals began to blur the lines among classes, races, and genders, presaging the long, slow, and painful progress toward equality in postwar U.S. society. Bailey and Farber (both history, Barnard Coll.) support their argument with previously unpublished diaries, letters, interviews, memoirs, and declassified war documents that vividly depict personal relationships across racial lines, the treatment of nonwhite workers, and other aspects of wartime life in Hawaii. This book is both a fresh look at the social dynamics at work as well as a readable and fascinating volume suitable for most public and academic libraries.
- Katharine L. Kan, Aiea P.L., Hawaii
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this lively, evocative look at men and women who went to Hawaii from the mainland during WW II, Bailey and Farber, history professors at Barnard College in New York City, concentrate on how they sought to bridge the cultural and racial gaps that isolated them from the islanders. Representative malahini (newcomers) discussed here include a shipyard worker, an officer in charge of preparing Marines for the assault on Iwo Jima, an African American soldier who had to deal with a more complicated racism than he had encountered at home, an enterprising prostitute from Chicago and a military policeman assigned to Honolulu's Hotel Street, where the brothels were located. The study is novelistic in its revelation of character and sense of place.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0029012228
• ISBN 13: 9780029012222
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270