the U.S. Navy in WWII and Tiki culture

Im a big collector of WWII Navy items and found that I can combine both my love for this and Tiki items into one collection/bar.
Almost every sailor in WWII looked forward to time in Hawaii and Pearl Harbor, which resulted in lots of photos of sailors in grass skirts, Leis, and half naked ladies!

What Tiki items ?? :)

doesnt hula girls count as tiki items??? :)

Probably more so Hawaiiana but that's a circular argument here on TC. . The WWII angle does have Pre-Tiki significance though.

Carry on. :)

OK good, Ill look for some pics of sailors and tiki gods too!
thanks again

ok closest thing I could find to a sailor, she's wearing white and there is a statue

I had posted this picture on TC a few months back. It's from an online auction that I lost.

Early combo coconut mug and ashtray.

This isn't tiki either, but I think Pele Paul will like it.

Not my posting, but you can buy it on etsy.com $75.00

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83679568/wwii-sweetheart-navy-pillow-south-seas?ref=market

thanks guys!!! LOVE em!!!!! yea anything south pacific is my thing, my office is US navy subs and aviation, while the rest of the house is french Polynesian, bed room is tiki and the backyard is Jungle cruise meets tiki room!!
anything you find like that send it my way please!! i do a few displays for vets during the year and they always light up when they see that stuff!!
paul

etsy.com and shopgoodwill.com are good places to look for WW II artifacts. You have to be very creative in your searching though, especially on the shopgoodwill website. The descriptions of the merchandise can be very creative when they don't know what they're selling.
Etsy does have some Hawaiian pics of sailors and soldiers enjoying the sites.

This a great thread PP. Stick with your original subject matter. Servicemen returning from the Pacific Theater played a huge role in the development of Tiki, as we know it. The girl on the roller skates should go play elswhere. I've got some great stuff, I'll post this week.
Mahalo,
Rick

thanks Big kahuna!!!!

2 sailors in front of the Honolulu Trader Vic's. It's an eBay posting. Too bad sample is watermarked across the picture.

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-05-14 17:32 ]

Here is a great TC threat about the Pacific theater of war, one of my all time favorites threads here!:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=35520&forum=1

There is an amazing amount of images on the Pacific war on the internet now - not so much collectible, just great historic material. But images and objects that connect Polynesian pop and WWII are pretty rare.

This is one of my pet subjects. James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" and the resulting musical and movie "South Pacific" played a huge part in the evolution of Polynesian pop in mainland America, all the way into the Tiki era.

Because I am dissatisfied with the way The Book of Tiki description on Amazon simplifies and homogenizes the effect of WWII on the U.S.A....

"Tiki is the manifestation of exotic visions of island culture borrowed from tales told by American soldiers stationed in the South Pacific during World War II: trees loaded with exotic fruits, sleepy lagoons, white-sand beaches, and gorgeous people wearing grass feathers as they danced half-naked during all-night orgies of food and music. Americans seized these visions and incorporated fantasy into reality: mid-century fashion, popular music, eating and drinking, and even architecture were influenced by the Tiki trend."

...I like to present a more differentiated view of this history:

Indubitably, just like Lieutenant James Michener, the were many servicemen who were lucky to be assigned behind the front lines, on some sleepy island outpost, or in the supply units that came after the action.. And Yes, Hawaii was a dream assignment, which produced many happy memories (and marriages :) )

But the fact is that many soldiers landing on an island did not find a South Seas paradise like this:

...but like this:

So much so that it was the subject of war cartoons:

Of course this kind of scenery didn't exactly make for a good back bar mural :)

The fact is that the South Seas fantasy had existed BEFORE the war...

...and was perpetuated during it...

...and after

Nobody wanted to remember stuff like this...

..and the veterans deserved their share of fun and recreation for sure. The South Seas pop myth proved stronger, functioning again as what it always was:
An escape from harsh reality!

I drink to that! :)

HERE HERE, BIGBRO!

BigBro, thank you for a wonderful post.

My father was 16, quit school and ran and joined the navy when the war started. I know he spent all of his time aboard a ship in the South Pacific, but he would never talk about the war or what he saw. Recently when cleaning out my parents home for sale, I found a bunch of pictures and Navy memorabilia. None of it involves grass skirts or what we would consider Tiki, however it does show a bunch of really young men, trying to have a good time in the middle of a war. I don't have the pictures as they are at my brothers house but when I get them I'll scan a few. I'm working in some of the memorabilia into my office/tiki decor. It seems to fit right in.

Dale

I hear ya Bigbro, thanks so much for your input!!! Im with you on the influence of the US navy and GIs on Tiki culture!! if it wasnt for them, we'd all be into Euro or Japan cultural stuff.
And thank you to Dale for your fathers service in the Navy!! God bless em

planning on having a WWII era South Pacific/Hawaii party with people in uniform...

and you cant have a WWII era bar without the captured Japanese flags!!

Japanese meatballs and both Imperial army and Navy Rising Sun silk flags

a few more....

Pele Paul, have you ever attended The Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942 at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro? The event for 2013 already happened in February, but the next one will be in February 2014.

People dress up in outfits and uniforms from WW II, listen to live big band music than duck for cover when vintage fighter planes start strafing the crowd with blanks.

Satin Dollz

Great view from Fort MacArthur.

LOL yes I have!! lots of fun, me and the GF and her parents all dressed up for that!!!

On 2013-05-15 11:21, Pele Paul wrote:
LOL yes I have!! lots of fun, me and the GF and her parents all dressed up for that!!!

Ya'll look sharp! I assumed you had gone. I always try to promote Fort MacArthur since it needs the help of the public to keep it running. It's a hidden part of LA that not many people are aware of. The hidden barracks, gun emplacements, Nike missile launcher and scary tunnels are worth looking for.

Enough of my non-tiki and non-Hawaiian jibber jabber on your thread!

-Lori

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-05-15 14:21 ]

GROG miss Tiki-Kate

[ Edited by: GROG 2013-05-15 14:42 ]

very cool Grog, thanks for sharing!!!!!

Great stuff, GROG! Are those all yours?

Found 'em on ebay. Downloaded the pics for this thread, didn't buy 'em.

On 2013-05-15 18:23, GROG wrote:
Found 'em on ebay. Downloaded the pics for this thread, didn't buy 'em.

thats the way to do it!!!!!

this is the piece of shrapnel that almost prevented my entire family from happening.

my grandfather is the only living plank-holder on the most decorated ship in US naval history....the USS Nicholas... and this piece of shrapnel lodged itself into the wall about a foot from my grandfather's head during an attack by the Japanese.

he's also a pearl harbor survivor, and quite frankly, he's my hero.

cool thread...

That ship took my grandfather to Guadalcanal.

what a small world!

There is a TC thread on tiki nose art.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=14792&forum=1

Here is some more nose art.

B-24

especially love the pics with the captured Japanese flags, prob why I keep buying them even though Ive got over a dozen!!

thanks for the heads up on the tiki nose art, too cool!!!!!

What immortal days, men and women. Eternal thanks and honour to those who served in WW II.

Thank you for all the images and thoughts.

Just came across this thread. Love it.

Today is Father's Day and I will post a few pictures of my father who served on a destroyer towards the end of WW II.

Here he is (far right) at an officer's club probably in Pearl Harbor. Disappointed that I don't see any tropical drinks. Either my dad and his friends liked to guzzle beer or they had a lousy wait staff.

While his War experience did not make him "tiki" it did have a profound effect on the course of his life. He really enjoyed the beach which made him move to the California coast in the early 1950's.

Here is a picture of him (far left) with a few sailor buddys on an island somewhere in the South Pacific.

Hey! What did you expect? He was from Dodge City Kansas. I doubt if he owned bathing trunks.

With my mom a few years before I was born.
Nice tropical shirt!!! Still beer and not a tiki drink.

very very cool, thanks for sharing

This TC thread from 2007 has more military pictures.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=26665&forum=1

I can't find a clip of it online, but Ray Harryhausen made a 10 minute film called 'Guadalcanal' during WWII. He worked with Frank Capra and Dr. Seuss, Major Ted Geisel, making propaganda and instructional films during the war. It's fun to see a bamboo hut being made in stop motion animation. The short film is a special feature on the Harryhausen Chronicles.

On rubylane.com there is a sun helmet that was used in Guadalcanal on sale for $447. http://www.rubylane.com/item/160319-3559/US-NAVY-Guadalcanal-WW11-Fibre

I like how people are posting personal photos of WWII so here are mine. My mom passed recently and I was fortunately able to scan some of her photos for a slide presentation. I knew she had some cool WWII stuff so I made sure I scanned them. First a little background; my mom was 17 when Pearl Harbor was attacked. She, like a lot of young civilians skipped her senior year to help in the war efforts. She and her sisters were beautiful hapa haoles (half breeds-Dorothy Lamour like) or lighter brown skinned natives with some Caucasian features. The island girl that most GI’s imagined but was actually not that common though out the Pacific. One Aunty Leialoha, the taller one in some of these photos, did marry a Naval man, uncle Bob an officer and a marine engineer. He was one of those guys sun bathing on a deck while the A bomb went off nearby at Bikini. He luckily survived without any after effects. My mom’s the dark Italian looking one.



Note they were good girls visiting the Chaplain's office

Next stop Bablu's : WWII - the New Guinea Campaign and images from the island
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=35520&forum=1&start=30

These are some interesting photos available on etsy(not mine).

http://www.etsy.com/listing/154029411/guadalcanal-south-pacific-island-war?ref=sr_gallery_4&ga_search_query=guadalcanal&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all
Apia Harbor, Samoa.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/153961726/guadalcanal-south-pacific-islands-photos?ref=sr_gallery_10&ga_search_query=guadalcanal&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all

More images available on etsy.com
Postcard.

The Waikiki Theater which was sadly torn down.

That above post card reminded me of a Popeye screen capture I recently posted titled "Alona of the Sarong Seas". Ironically about the same time period 1942.

My cocoanuts!

May Wynn singing in a tiki bar during WW2 in the movie "The caine mutiny"

Cool thread - I love putting the tiki cocktails in context with other events!