James A. Michener: Military Service

Shortly after James and Patti Michener moved to New York, the United States entered World War II.  James Michener followed the war closely and wrote in a 1942 New York Times opinion piece “Nazi Germany is capable of destroying Europe.”  At this point, Michener was thirty-five, and not likely to be conscripted into military service through the draft, but was described as having “a moral imperative to stop Hitler and the Japanese aggressors, and he was determined to have a part in it himself” (Hayes, 1984).  In 1942, Michener met with military officers in Washington. D.C. several times trying to convince them to commission him as an officer.  Patti Michener also felt compelled to serve and enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in 1942.

In 1943, Michener was commissioned into the United States Navy as a lieutenant and took a leave of absence from Macmillan Publishing.  Despite begging his supervisor for an overseas appointment, he spent most of his first year serving as a publications editor for the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C. and the Aviation Supply Depot in Philadelphia.

Finally, in 1944, Michener was ordered to ship out on the Cape Horn to the South Pacific.  He was appointed as a Special Duty Officer with the responsibility of conducting tours of inspection.  In this role, he toured bases and outposts throughout the South Pacific and reported on conditions.  One of Michener’s biographers, Stephen May, credits his time in the Navy with transforming him from an inaccessible intellectual to a relatable writer:

The war forced Michener out of his introversion and into the lives of his fellow sailors and airmen.  Even though these men were sometimes overbearing and frequently shrill, he began to connect with people on an emotional level - perhaps for the first time in his life.

Here, he saw “stuff of good fiction” - beautiful landscapes, heroic soldiers, and the natives of the islands (May, 2005).  He began writing what would eventually become his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Tales of the South Pacific, working from 9:30 p.m. at night to 4:00 a.m. each morning.  Michener finished this series of short stories in 1945 and submitted it to Macmillan Publishing. 

As the war came to an end Michener, now thirty-eight, was poised to return to his civilian life as a textbook editor.  However, Michener was invited to do another tour as a post-war naval historian.  While Michener was eager to get back to work at Macmillan, he could not pass up the opportunity for adventure.  Michener extended his tour for another year and continued to travel, visiting Bora Bora, New Caledonia, and Fiji.  During this time, Macmillan Publishing had accepted his manuscript and was getting ready to publish Tales of the South Pacific.  When Michener left the Navy in December of 1945, he returned to New York and his role as a senior editor and poised to become a published author.

Michener’s naval service had a monumental impact on his work as a writer. His first published book was inspired by the people he met in the South Pacific.  Michener’s lifelong fascination with Polynesian culture would later spur him to write two other novels, Return to Paradise and Hawaii, and countless articles for Reader’s Digest and other publications.