African Americans and the Pacific War, 1941–1945: Race, Nationality, and the Fight for Freedom

Abstract

African Americans were as outraged as the rest of the American population when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Like in many engagements before, they rushed to volunteer for service. Their reasons varied, from patriotic duty to steady employment to the desire to demonstrate the African American right to equal citizenship afforded them by the Constitution. In African Americans and the Pacific War, 1941–1945, Chris Dixon addresses issues of African American patriotism, masculinity, the duality of their existence in the Jim Crow South and their place in helping other countries maintain colonial empires, and their experiences in the South Pacific during World War II. While the importance of the Double V campaign has been firmly established in the prevailing scholarship, Dixon's analysis of how sexuality framed a large part of how the white hierarchy in the military perceived them is particularly telling. Initially, the fact that African Americans would be mixing with white women in the Allied countries they were stationed in was a concern. Dixon details this at length with respect to Australia, where a White Australia policy existed. As time progressed, however, other white service personnel, American military leaders, and policy makers—not the host countries—expressed concern. Although initially innerved by the presence of African Americans, local whites were happier to have their assistance in saving their home from the Japanese.