Missionaries

Abstract

The romantic myths of the Happy Isles and bons sauvages of the Pacific and the Shangri-las and noble peasants of Asia had been fed by old traditions as well as modern mass media. Where American soldiers’ contact with the lands and peoples to the west was of a superficial and fleeting nature, these myths seemed clearly borne out by arcadian appearances and the simple lives of carefree villagers. But encounters with the naked realities of this dreamed-up world, whether momentary or prolonged, just as easily shattered the fragile myths of paradise, leading to a disillusionment as bitter as the expectations had been sweet.