This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Steven Loomis, IC3
to remember
Michener, James (PMOF), LCDR.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Doylestown, Bucks County
Last Address He was buried in Austin, Texas, and is honored by a monument at the Texas State Cemetery.
Date of Passing Oct 16, 1997
Location of Interment Austin Memorial Park Cemetery - Austin, Texas
LtCdr. James Albert Michener, USN WWII
Editor, Essayist, Novelist, Professor, Short Story Writer, Teacher
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Pulitzer Prize
James Albert Michener (February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997)
1942-46, U.S. Navy; sent to South Pacific, spring 1944. 1944-46,
Naval historian, South Pacific; discharged with rank of Lieutenant Commander
Michener wrote that he did not know who his parents were or exactly when or where he was born. He was raised a Quaker by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which are novels of sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in a particular geographic locale and incorporating historical facts into the story as well. Michener was known for the meticulous research behind his work.
Michener's major books include Tales of the South Pacific (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948), Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, and Poland. His nonfiction works include his 1968 Iberia about his travels in Spain and Portugal, his 1992 memoir The World Is My Home, and Sports in America. The book Return to Paradise combines fictional short stories with Michener's factual descriptions of the Pacific areas where they take place.
When the United States entered World War II Michener decided to enlist in the Navy although as a Quaker he was exempt from actual military service. From 1944 to 1946 he served as a naval historian in the South Pacific and traveled widely in the area. He traveled throughout the South Pacific on various missions that were assigned to him because his base commanders thought he was the son of Admiral Marc Mitscher. His travels became the setting for his breakout work Tales of the South Pacific.
Before establishing his career as a writer, Michener was a teacher, graduate student, textbook editor at Macmillan, and Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy. During World War II he was assigned to the South Pacific as a naval historian to investigate problems on various islands and write reports. Observing the interaction of two different cultures and inspired by the beautiful setting of the South Pacific, he began to make notes with no specific goal in mind. A near fatal landing at dusk, on the Tontouta Air Base in French New Caledonia, changed his life. He recalls in his autobiography, "As the stars came out and I could see the low mountains I had escaped, I swore: 'I'm going to live the rest of my life as if I were a great man.' And despite the terrible braggadocio of those words, I understood precisely what I meant."
"From far away, from deep in the jungles near Jap sentries, came a human voice. It was clear, quiet, somewhat high-pitched. But it never rose to excitement. I was to hear that voice often, almost every day for two months. Like hundreds of Americans who went forth to fight aided by that voice, I can hear it now. It fills the room about me as it filled that sweating hut. It was always the same. Even on the last day it was free from nervousness. On this morning it said: "Good morning, Americans! This is your Remittance Man. I am speaking from the Upper Solomons. First the weather. There are rain clouds over Bougainville, the Treasuries, Choiseul, and New Georgia. I believe it will rain in this region from about 0900 to 1400. The afternoon will be clear. It is now 94 degrees. There are no indications of violent weather."(from 'The Cave' in Tales of the South Pacific)
In 1977, President Gerald R. Ford awarded James Albert Michener the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal from NASA in 1988. In 1993, the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation awarded Michener its Lone Sailor Award for his naval service and his literary achievements, and on May 12, 2008, the United States Postal Service honored him with a 59¢ Distinguished Americans series postage stamp.
Other Comments:
Assigned to Administrative History Project, 1944 - 1945
Major Commands - South Pacific - LT James A. Michener.
His experiences in Education, English, and History got him a position as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant whose main duties were - Naval Historian. His Method: be there and take lots of notes. He was not an idle watcher. Serving as a courier*, personally delivering documents to operational headquarters that related to the assumption of the offensive in the South Pacific; or stepping in where anyone needed another hand - or shovel. His duties took him to many places and many people; which gave him access to interesting subjects found nowhere else.
His first book, of 40, consists of 19 short stories about people caught up in the 2nd World War; during the period shortly after Pearl Harbor, in the time when Japan's expansion toward Australia and New Zealand was checked at the Coral Sea. Michener wrote about the buildup of Allied forces that would lead to Tokyo Bay in 1945. We join him during the endlessly killingly boring waiting for the next assault against Japanese forces.
1942-46, U.S. Navy; enlisted as an ordinary seaman. He was commissioned a Lieutenant and sent to the South Pacific in the spring of 1944. 1944-46, Naval historian, South Pacific; discharged with rank of Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy.
*He refers to himself as a “Paperwork Sailor”. As a Courier, he traveled in the company of an anonymous armed Military guard.
