South Pacific is a musical, with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and book by both Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story is based on two short stories by James A. Michener from his book Tales of the South Pacific, which was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948. The musical was itself awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. The issue of racial prejudice was sensitively and candidly explored, particularly for a 1949 work. James Michener claimed he was pressured to ask Rodgers and Hammerstein to remove the song You've Got to Be Carefully Taught because of its biting comments about racial prejudice.