The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii [Paperback]

Beth L. Bailey (Author), David Farber (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0801848679 | ISBN-13: 978-0801848674 | Publication Date: March 1, 1994

As the forward base and staging area for all US military operations in the Pacific during World War II, Hawaii was the "first strange place" for close to a million soldiers, sailors and marines on their way to the horrors of war. But Hawaii was also the first strange place on another kind of journey, toward the new American society that would begin to emerge in the post-war era. Unlike the rigid and static social order of pre-war America, this was to be a highly mobile and volatile society of mixed racial and cultural influences, one above all in which women and minorities would increasingly demand and receive equal status. Drawing on documents, diaries, memoirs and interviews, Beth Bailey and David Farber show how these unprecedented changes were tested and explored in the highly charged environment of wartime Hawaii.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The First Strange Place is in the great tradition of oral history and yet it makes marvelous use of archival records—I was reminded both of Studs Terkel's sensitive ear and of Shelby Foote's sweeping vision.

(Boston Globe )

A fascinating, startling, and wise book. It will now be impossible to tell the story of the modern civil rights struggle or of the women's movement without seeking to understand the anxieties that flourished on Hawaii after Pearl Harbor.

(Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa. )

Packed with rich sources, complex ideas, and some amusing lines—and written with writers' craft as well as historians' insight—this book is an excellent example of both new and traditional history.

(Natsuki Aruga, Saitama University, Japan. )

A model of multicultural history—imaginatively researched, interpreted with discernment, and gracefully written.

(Harvard Sitkoff, University of New Hampshire )

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801848679
• ISBN-13: 978-0801848674
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > History > Australia & Oceania

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great research and a fascinating, beautifully written book, January 15, 2000

By 

Mac Simpson "MacKinnon" (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii (Paperback)

This book is the best ever done on the WWII scene in the Islands. The research is exhaustive, and the stories extremely well-told. I am a historian and author in Hawai'i--concentrating on the 19th century but well aware of the 20th--and the authors have done a great job of not only telling the stories but coming to the correct conclusions. The two chapters on Black soldiers and the sex trade are especially good.

The title refers to the idea that Hawai'i, with very different foods, traditions and most of its population Oriental and Polynesian, was the first strange place that most young servicemen ever encountered. On their way to fight Japanese, they are stationed on an island with more than a third of the population of Japanese ancestory.

If you want an insight as to the impact of suddenly tripling the population of an island, primarily with young fighting men, this is the book. It's a GREAT read, and it all happened!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative, March 16, 2011

By 

Heather E (Phoenix , Arizona) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii (Paperback)

I am an avid history buff, including WWII on both fronts and I purchased this book online after visiting Hawaii on vacation. What struck my interest was several locals, elders, etc. mentioning places and things they observed during war time Hawaii. I read this book over the course of a few days and read it again, to make sure I read everything correctly. I've yet to never read or come across this information again in other literature because--- THIS BOOK DID ALL THE RESEARCH. It takes another look at what keeps our soldiers happy and the flip side of things. I listen to many audio books and I've never heard this portion in any books. Great and interesting read. I highly suggest it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two systems briefly collide., October 13, 2009

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii (Paperback)

The mainland during the 1940s was mostly just white and Black, with rigid segregation and anti-miscegenation laws. Hawaii of that time had many races and they married and mingled if not freely than without as much stigma. In Hawaii, Portuguese and (European-phenotyped?) Puerto Ricans were not deemed "haole," the Hawaiian term most often used for whites. Add into the mix that far more men, as soldiers, came to the islands during the war. Add these two opposites together and there was a radical alteration of race, gender, and possibly class in Hawaii.
This book is accessible to non-academic readers without being insulting to one's intelligence. The authors use letters, military reports, local newspapers, etc. to paint a picture, from multiple perspectives about this wartime juxtaposition.
The first chapter initially talked about Hawaii, hours before Pearl Harbor's attack, generally and it made me suspicious that the work would be boring. However, the authors were really trying to ground that while sex and dancing and racism and intermarriage where going on, folk were still worried about housing and TV and what's for dinner. The chapters become more interesting as you progress through the book, so you may want to read the last chapters first.
My one critique about this book is that oftentimes interracial dynamics were scant. In the prostitution chapter, it seemed that clients and workers were only of the majority group. The chapter on sex spoke much more about same-race interactions and then only slowly moved to interracial counterparts. I am especially interested in the dynamics between people of color and the chapter on African Americans in the highly diverse Hawaii said little about how Black got along with brown, yellow, and calico.
If you are fascinated by Hawaii, diversity, intersectional analyses, how wars uproot trends, etc., then you will enjoy this book. It's quite impressive.