Shore Leave

For the thousands of US sailors bound for the Pacific theatre of World War II, the Hawaiian Islands were the staging ground for an unknown fate. Their perception of Honolulu as a tropical paradise quickly deflated upon their arrival. The anticipation of a moonlit Diamond Head, available hula girls and free-flowing and affordable rum quickly materialized into crowded streets, beaches cordoned off with barbed wire and endless lines to nowhere. Still, as with many ports of call, diversions were plentiful, and set against the warm trade winds, sailors took advantage of them on their last stop to hell. Shore Leave is the first photobook to capture the Honolulu of this time and place. It is a one-of-a-kind visual document of a port that, for many sailors who passed through, was their initiation into manhood. Classic 1940s images of Hawaiian hula girls complement scrapbook photos of jaunty, uniformed sailors touring the island on a motorcycle or playing pool. Young women masquerading as bonafide hula girls pose with sailors in photobooth arcades, a ritual that for many would be the last human embrace before being deposited onto the battefield. Whether on the crowded streets of Waikiki or in line at the famed Black Cat Cafe, the young American men appear content for the moment with the liberties that their 48 hours away from the ship afforded. Meticulously culled from a 30-year collection of scrapbooks, photo albums and ephemera, Shore Leave–beautifully packaged with its clothbound, tipped-on cover–presents the dreams and realities of young men on their way to war in a Honolulu as exotic and forbidden as it was banal and lonely.