Carson, Robert "Aloha Means Good-Bye"

This multi-part Post serial is particularly interesting for its opening (parts 1-3), which is set aboard the fictitious Japanese freighter GENOA MARU bound from Vancouver to Hawaii on what was (in hindsight) the eve of America’s entry into the Second World War. Like many stories from this era, this one has a Japanese/Axis espionage angle. The serial served as the basis for the classic 1942 Warner Brothers film “Across the Pacific,” directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet. Pre-production for the film started in early December, 1941 and its original script featured a Japanese invasion of the islands. After the very real Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the film’s settings — including the GENOA MARU’s fictitious sailing — were moved from Vancouver and the West Coast to Hawaii to an Atlantic Coast / Caribbean voyage culminating at the Panama Canal. Ironically, the film never progressed past Panama, and thus didn’t make it “across the Pacific.”