G.I. Blues

From Florida, a man tells of his search for his sister, born in Auckland, who he has never met - one of a lost generation of New Zealanders whose existence has never, officially,
been admitted. Edward Rooney reports.
Billy O. Wertley's legacy of his time in Auckland with the US Hospital Corps is a mystery that nags at his son, 70 years later.
"He was a Chief Pharmacist's Mate (Hospital Corpsman). His full name was Maurice O. Wertley. He went by the name of Billy. His ship was probably the Tucker or Chester," Neil Wertley tells me down the phone line from Florida.
The mystery surrounds a relationship his father had in Auckland - and the daughter born as a result.
"My sister is supposed to be a year younger than me," says Neil. "I was born in July 1941. I'm guessing his ship was among the first to pull liberty [in Kiwi terms, go on shore leave] in Auckland."
Neil's sister would have been born in 1942. Sadly, his father disclosed very limited information to her brother about his only other sibling, far away in the South Seas.
Billy O. Wertley was born on November 17, 1916, and lived to 94. The account is, he met and fell for a girl who worked with the Red Cross in Auckland. By the time Billy shipped out, she was pregnant and he mostly kept secret any correspondence he exchanged with her.
"I've forgotten the name of the Red Cross girl other than her name started with a 'J' and that she was a blonde," says 69-year-old Neil.
Sketchy details indeed, but Neil - a retired university dean and Vietnam veteran - still hopes to seek out the sister he has never known.
"I am doing this purely out of curiosity. I was an only child and didn't become aware of the existence of a sister until I was in my late 50s. I decided to wait until both parents had passed away before making any effort to locate her. My mother had located the old love letters and was not at all a happy camper.
"After they passed, my wife developed cancer and it was a battle that went on for over five years. She survived and I finally had time to enjoy retired life and consider how to go about the search. The only thing I have to offer her [his half-sister], if she is found, is to provide information about her father."
Neil is aware 70 years of silence will be hard to break. Just as his father preferred non-disclosure as he lived out his final years in Tampa, Florida, so may have the Auckland woman - "J" - who bore his daughter.
The Aucklander has made some inquiries on Neil's behalf. Due to the timing, it is likely Billy was serving on the USS Tucker DD-374, under Lieutenant Commander Hilyer Fulford Gearing. The ship was directed to New Zealand "to show the flag" in early 1941 as the international situation deteriorated in the Pacific.
Incredibly, Billy O. Wertley may have seen his daughter once. Records show the USS Tucker returned to Auckland for one night, July 30, 1942 - six months after surviving the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
Billy was among thousands of US servicemen who sailed into Auckland and Wellington harbours during World War II.
Ray Turner, the Society of Genealogists' Auckland secretary, says many Americans are now searching for relatives in New Zealand. "It is the same in Australia as well."
Sadly, these people are staring at a wall of silence, resolutely constructed around the shame of what their birth certificates - and a disapproving society - called "illegitimate births".
Dr Angela Wanhalla is in a research team at Otago University, looking into the social impacts of the US servicemen across the Pacific. "Illegitimacy is such a shameful thing," she says.
"We are finding that more children are wanting to find out as the shame has been cast off over recent years. There're a lot of books about WWII," she says. "And there're books about New Zealand servicemen overseas and, more recently, there are some books emerging about New Zealand on the homefront during the war, particularly about women and how they got by."
But very little has ever been said about births from US military stationed in New Zealand during those years.
"In the existing research, there are mentions of Americans being in New Zealand and of them being quite glamorous for the times, and of romances," says Dr Wanhalla. "Then they left the country."
Certainly, New Zealand women had children to US servicemen. Dr Wanhalla and her fellow researchers are gathering oral histories from Maori and indigenous families across the Pacific willing to talk about it.
"The illegitimacy rates went up during the time the servicemen were in New Zealand. That is a fact. More women were having babies outside of wedlock. But we will never know how many were fathered by servicemen as no father's name had to be registered on the birth certificates of illegitimate babies at that time."
Moreover, marriages were recorded and children born legitimately of US servicemen who then went to war and did not return. "So those children were left behind, too, in that sense.
"Then there are men who survived and sent for their wives and children to join them in America."
The Otago researcher says illegitimate children from this time had "interesting and diverse'' upbringings. "Some were institutionalised, some adopted out, some were raised by grandparents, some raised by single mothers and some were raised in families with stepfathers who adopted them and gave them their names.''
The chances of Neil finding his half-sister aren't great, says Dr Wanhalla. "Realistically, unless someone reads this story and already knows the history of this girl, the chances are pretty slim. It's extremely hard to trace people born during this period.''
Many family stories have common threads. "Very often there are secret stashes of an archive or some kind of keepsake which a grandchild may be hanging onto. Quite often it will be letters or a photograph that has become very valuable to the holder.''
The Otago research team is predominantly investigating the racial politics of the time, and the social impacts from US servicemen fraternising with Maori and Pacific Island women.
"A lot of these servicemen came from the southern States and the question of race is also largely unknown. We don't know how many black Americans came over, for instance. And we don't know what the racial politics of the American military authorities were. We're only just starting to scratchthe surface of all this in such a small way.
"We know nothing about the women who married servicemen and went to the States, we know nothing of the children who were fathered by servicemen and went to the States - and we certainly know nothing about children who were fathered by servicemen and left behind.''
And then there are other war stories our mothers never told us. Gabrielle Fortune, from the University of Auckland, has researched stories of women who came to New Zealand after the war with returning Kiwi servicemen.
"While I've not focused on the American presence in New Zealand, I did find that the impact of the GIs being here was felt by the incoming war brides.
"Strangely, somehow they were blamed for the affairs and marriages of New Zealand women to Americans. It's one of those prejudices that lingered years after the war.''
All Neil Wertley can do is sit and wait at his Florida home and hope someone defied the prejudices of the time - and since - to speak about where that baby girl really came from in 1942.
Can you help?
Billy O. Wertley was a US serviceman who had a liaison with a blonde girl whose name started with a "J'' in Auckland near the end of 1941. She worked with the Red Cross and gave birth to a daughter in 1942. Ring any bells?
Email: edward.rooney@theaucklander.co.nz
Young Americans
Under a real threat of invasion by the Japanese following the assault on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, New Zealand was virtually defenceless because most fit men were in Europe, fighting the Germans. On June 12, 1942, thousands of American soldiers sailed into Auckland and Wellington harbours.
In a small country of only 1.6 million people, the servicemen made a huge impact. At any one time from June 1942 and mid-1944, there were between 15,000 and 45,000 Americans in camps around New Zealand. They were mostly young men, 17- and 18-year-olds, in military uniform.
In June 1992, some 450 former US sailors, soldiers and fliers were invited back to Auckland, to march up Queen St and commemorate the arrival of US military and their support of New Zealand during the war.
Gene Duffy, one of more than 500,000 American service staff who visited New Zealand between 1942 and 1945, told the Herald that day that the city had changed but not the warmth of the Kiwi welcome.
He recalled spending nights "jitterbugging and dancing'' to the sound of a big band in the Peter Pan ballroom at the top of Queen St (later to become the Mainstreet cabaret) or "sneaking beers into the Civic Theatre'', where Freda Stark danced, clad only in gold paint.
Coyly, Duffy said the popularity of American serviceman among local women was legendary and "somewhat exaggerated''.
Or maybe not. American authorities frowned on servicemen marrying New Zealand women because the relationships might not survive the war. They also knew romantic liaisons would be resented by New Zealand servicemen returning to find their wives had been unfaithful or their girlfriends were going out with a Yank - or were pregnant.
Professor Glyn Harper noted for an exhibition in Wellington in 2009 that the ties have never been fully explored. Yet, he describes it as "a very important milestone in our relationship with the United States''.
"The US Marines still hold New Zealand in high regard for the simple hospitality and care we showed them in those troubled times.''
Stars and strifes
Declining numbers are threatening a 60-year Auckland tradition of honouring fallen US
servicemen.
Phil McKenna from the US Consulate-General says old age and dwindling attendances mean organisers are reviewing whether to continue the event beyond this year.  The United States Veterans Club of New Zealand will hold its annual US Memorial Day Service at Auckland War Memorial Museum's Hall of Memories on Sunday, May 29, at 2pm.
The club has laid wreaths at Auckland War Memorial Museum every year since 1948, and
this commemoration will mark the 63rd anniversary of the first US Memorial Day service in Auckland.
Everyone is welcome to attend the ceremony. Attendees do not have to be linked to the US military.
But, if there are veterans of US military service in the region, club president Mike Riley asks them to go along - and to join the club - to help ensure the link between the US and New Zealand continues to be commemorated.