The stories in James A. Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific (1947) depict the south west Pacific during the time of the Allied occupation, and they outline the particular teleologies of war that result in environmental destruction. Primarily concerned with the experiences of American Navy servicemen, the collection also considers the issue of fraternisation with local women, who are either Tonkinese or Javanese, but never Melanesian. While seemingly concerned with breaking down racial barriers, the collection nevertheless reiterates racial taxonomies in its depiction of both African Americans and Melanesians. The stories reiterate tropes that have been in play since first contact between Euro-Americans and Islanders, including that of the Polynesian belle, seen first in the recuperation of the Mutiny on the Bounty story in “Mutiny,” and also in ‘Fo’ Dolla’” where the belle is projected onto the body of a Tonkinese girl. I outline how the used and abandoned belle can be read as standing in for the whole Pacific in the time of war: used and then discarded, as the US military machine turns its attention back to the homeland.