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A remarkable but little noted immigration occurred after World War II. Nearly 45,000 Japanese war brides, daughters of the defeated Japanese Empire, carved out unique paths to an American identity.
Between 1947 and the early 1960s, they came as wives of U.S. servicemen returning from duty in Japan or combat in Korea, ending up in farms, small towns and military bases across the United States.
Unlike the WWII war brides from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the Japanese entered the United States in interracial marriages--
illegal in half the states at the time
due to anti-miscegenation laws.
The word “war bride” implies dependency and submission.
But they were not the docile, obedient, self-sacrificing stereotype of East Asian women.
They were strong modern independent working women, survivors of a war-torn childhood, taking a leap of faith to live in a country idealized in the Hollywood movies they had seen in Japan.
However, they knew little about the men they married, or how hard it would be to live in the United States as an American housewife, cut off from all they had known.
They faced enormous challenges, from overcoming language barriers and racism to troubled marriages, divorce and single motherhood. Their decision to marry and leave Japan meant there was no going back. Like women everywhere, they did what they needed to do.
In spite of these hardships, they became part of the fabric of post-war America, raising mixed-race children, finding jobs and participating in social institutions from churches to the PTA— both blending into their communities while adding to America’s cultural mosaic.
Eighty years after the end of World War II, most Japanese war brides are now gone. As children of these American immigrants, we reflect on our mothers’ lives.
What were they thinking?
Did they have regrets or was it all worth it?
How did it change them?
It falls to us to preserve their untold stories, sacrifices and contributions.
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