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“Solitary Jewels” or “Brazen, Shameless Hussies”? Allied Women in the Wartime Pacific

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Hollywood’s South Seas and the Pacific War
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Abstract

In late 1944, Corporal Lois E. Smey, serving with the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC), wrote to her parents in Cuyahoga County, Ohio:

New Guinea was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Like an emerald, so green and verdant and beautiful. Tall palms, sandy beaches, and all the ships in port signaling a welcome and signals flashing from the mountains all around. And then you think—here am I safe and sound and surrounded by people who have all lived through this, and so have I!1

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Notes

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© 2012 Sean Brawley and Chris Dixon

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Brawley, S., Dixon, C. (2012). “Solitary Jewels” or “Brazen, Shameless Hussies”? Allied Women in the Wartime Pacific. In: Hollywood’s South Seas and the Pacific War. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137090676_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137090676_7

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-29722-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-09067-6

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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