Morris, Phyllis “Honeymoon Incorporated.”
This World War 2-era Liberty Magazine “short, short” story (i.e., less than one page in length) that contains an ending right out of O. Henry. Young couple Anne and Tad are, according to author Morris, just two ordinary, innocent Americans, “people whose name would never be in the newspaper.” The duo are befriended by a teller (Mr. Jansen) at the local bank where they come in, week after week, year after year, to make small deposits into a joint savings account. They confide to Jansen that they are engaged and that they’re saving for their honeymoon. Jansen takes a liking to them, is present at their modest, late November 1941 wedding ceremony and, alone among their friends, knows that the two have booked passage aboard a fruit boat, the MOANA, for a honeymoon cruise to Hawaii. Ironically, Anne and Tad are caught up in the Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and their names, sadly, do appear in the press. The story concludes:
“Monday, December 8, their names appeared on the front page of every paper, in small print, under black headlines: ‘The fruit boat MOANA was sunk Sunday December 7, docking at Pearl Harbor – No survivors.’”
What Morris is saying is both poignant and deceptively simple: the days of American innocence are over – war has overtaken the country, and many more lives will be shed before future couples like Anne and Tad will be free to plan for a peaceful, uneventful future together.
A final note: readers who want their historical fiction accurate will have a bone to pick with author Morris. Since Pearl Harbor is a U.S. Navy base, with facilities only for military vessels, a civilian “fruit boat” such as her MOANA would in reality have docked at nearby Honolulu and not at Pearl Harbor. A quick read through historical sources reveals that the Japanese attacked no civilian ships at Honolulu on December 7th.