"They're Bringing Home Japanese Wives": Japanese War Brides in the Postwar Era

Abstract

"'They're Bringing Home Japanese Wives': Japanese War Brides in the Postwar Era" explores the immigration of Japanese war brides to the U.S. following World War II and why the United States so swiftly and dramatically reversed its views toward immigration from Japan following the war; the degree to which Americans, both those of Japanese descent and those of other heritages, accepted this influx of newcomers; and the lived experiences of these immigrant women during their first decade in America. Drawing on sources that range from government documents to interviews with war brides conducted in the 1950s, I argue that postwar constructions of racialized gender eased the acceptance of these women into American society. However, sometimes the degree of acceptance was contingent on the race of the war bride's husband to such a degree that one might speak of racial or ethnic coverture in the mid-20th Century U.S.