Japanese War Brides in America

Japanese War Brides in America
Author: Miki Ward Crawford
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2009-11-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0313362025

Following the end of World War II, 500,000 American troops occupied every prefecture of Japan and interracial marriages occurred. The sudden influx of 50,000 Japanese war brides during 1946-1965 created social tension in the United States, while opening up one of the country's largest cross-cultural integrations. This book reveals the stories of 19 Japanese war brides whose assimilation into American culture forever influenced future generations, depicting love, strength, and perseverance in the face of incredible odds. The Japanese war brides hold a unique place in American history and have been called ambassadors to the United States. For the first time in English these women share their triumphs, sorrows, successes, and identity in a time when their own future was tainted by social segregation. This oral history focuses mainly on women's lives in the period following World War II and the occupation of Japan. It illuminates the cultural expectations, the situations brought about by the war, and effects of the occupation, and also include quotes from various war brides regarding this time. Chapter interviews are set up in chronological fashion and laid out in the following format: introduction of the war bride, how she met her husband, her initial travels to America, and life thereafter. Where needed, explanations, translations, and background history with references are provided.

Tsuchino

Tsuchino
Author: Michael J. Forrester
Publisher: American Classic Books
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2004-09
Genre: Japanese Americans
ISBN: 1589822250

"In a stunning tribute to his wife of 45 years, Michael Forrester's Tsuchino, My Japanese War Bride is a compelling narrative that gives readers history and insight into the little-known and understudied story of Japanese war brides in America. Before leaving to serve in the US military in the occupation of Japan, New York-born Irish Catholic Forrester was cautioned by his grandmother to not return home with a Japanese bride! Fortunately, Michael Forrester did not heed the warning and in 1958, he married Tsuchino Matsuo ? a strong-willed and determined woman who confounds any stereotypes readers might have had about Japanese war brides. Michael and Tsuchino's story of love transcends cultural and language barriers at a time in American history when marriage between two different races was a rare occurrence." ? Regina F. Lark, Ph.D., UCLA Center for the Study of Women and Women's Studies Programs

Michi's Memories

Michi's Memories
Author: Keiko Tamura
Publisher: ANU E Press
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2011-09-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1921862521

This book tells the story of Michi, one of 650 Japanese war brides who arrived in Australia in the early 1950s. The women met Australian servicemen in post-war Japan and decided to migrate to Australia as wives and fiancées to start a new life. In 1953, when Michi reached Sydney Harbour by boat with her two Japanese-born children, she knew only one person in Australia: her husband. She did not know any English so she quickly learned her first English phrase, "I like Australia", in the car on the way from the harbour to meet her Australian family. In the last fifty years, she brought up seven children while the family moved from one part of Australia to another. Now, in her eighties, she leads a peaceful life in Adelaide, but remains active in many ways. Her voice is full of life and she looks and sounds much younger than her age.

Issei, Nisei, War Bride

Issei, Nisei, War Bride
Author: Evelyn Nakano Glenn
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2010-04-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1439903506

A unique study of Japanese American women employed as domestic workers.

Okinawan Women's Stories of Migration

Okinawan Women's Stories of Migration
Author: Johanna O. Zulueta
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2022-03-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000553051

The phenomenon of “war brides” from Japan moving to the West has been quite widely discussed, but this book tells the stories of women whose lives followed a rather different path after they married foreign occupiers. During Okinawa’s Occupation by the Allies from 1945 to 1972, many Okinawan women met and had relationships with non-Western men who were stationed in Okinawa as soldiers and base employees. Most of these men were from the Philippines. Zulueta explores the journeys of these women to their husbands’ homeland, their acculturation to their adopted land, and their return to their native Okinawa in their late adult years. Utilizing a life-course approach, she examines how these women crafted their own identities as first-generation migrants or “Issei” in both the country of migration and their natal homeland, their re-integration to Okinawan society, and the role of religion in this regard, as well as their thoughts on end-of-life as returnees. This book will be of interest to scholars looking at gender and migration, cross-cultural marriages, ageing and migration, as well as those interested in East Asia, particularly Japan/Okinawa.

Occupying Power

Occupying Power
Author: Sarah Kovner
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2012-02-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0804783462

The year was 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops poured into war-torn Japan and spread throughout the country. The effect of this influx on the local population did not lessen in the years following the war's end. In fact, the presence of foreign servicemen also heightened the visibility of certain others, particularly panpan—streetwalkers—who were objects of their desire. Occupying Power shows how intimate histories and international relations are interconnected in ways scholars have only begun to explore. Sex workers who catered to servicemen were integral to the postwar economic recovery, yet they were nonetheless blamed for increases in venereal disease and charged with diluting the Japanese race by producing mixed-race offspring. In 1956, Japan passed its first national law against prostitution, which produced an unanticipated effect. By ending a centuries-old tradition of sex work regulation, it made sex workers less visible and more vulnerable. This probing history reveals an important but underexplored aspect of the Japanese occupation and its effect on gender and society. It shifts the terms of debate on a number of controversies, including Japan's history of forced sexual slavery, rape accusations against U.S. servicemen, opposition to U.S. overseas bases, and sexual trafficking.

Dream of the Water Children

Dream of the Water Children
Author: Frederick D. Kakinami Cloyd
Publisher: 2leaf Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781940939285

Born to an African American father and Japanese mother, Frederick D. Kakinami Cloyd, the narrator of Dream of the Water Children, finds himself not only to be a marginalized person by virtue of his heritage, but often a cultural drifter, as well. Indeed, both his family and his society treat him as if he doesn't entirely belong to any world. Tautly written in spare, clear poetic prose, this memoir explores the specific contours of Japanese and African American cultures, as well as the broader experience of biracial and multicultural identity. To tell his story, Cloyd incorporates photographs and Japanese writing, history, and memory to convey both rich personal experience and significant historical detail. Bringing together vivid memories with a perceptive cultural eye, Dream of the Water Children brings readers closer to a biracial experience, opening up our understanding of the cultural richness and social challenges people from diverse backgrounds face.

Beyond the Shadow of Camptown

Beyond the Shadow of Camptown
Author: Ji-Yeon Yuh
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2004-04
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0814796990

Through moving oral histories, Ji-Yeon Yuh tells an important, at times heartbreaking, story of Korean military brides. She takes us beyond the stereotypes and reveals their roles within their families, communities, and Korean immigration to the U.S.

Picture Bride

Picture Bride
Author: Yoshiko Uchida
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1997
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780295976167

Her story is intertwined with others: her husband, Taro Takeda, an Oakland shopkeeper; Kiku and her husband Henry, who reject demeaning city work to become farmers; Dr. Kaneda, a respected community leader who is destroyed by the adopted land he loves. All are caught up in the cruel turmoil of World War II, when West Coast Japanese Americans are uprooted from their homes and imprisoned in desert detention camps.

How to Be an American Housewife

How to Be an American Housewife
Author: Margaret Dilloway
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2010-08-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 110118924X

A mother-daughter story about the strong pull of tradition, and the lure and cost of breaking free of it. When Shoko decided to marry an American GI and leave Japan, she had her parents' blessing, her brother's scorn, and a gift from her husband-a book on how to be a proper American housewife. As she crossed the ocean to America, Shoko also brought with her a secret she would need to keep her entire life... Half a century later, Shoko's plans to finally return to Japan and reconcile with her brother are derailed by illness. In her place, she sends her grown American daughter, Sue, a divorced single mother whose own life isn't what she hoped for. As Sue takes in Japan, with all its beauty and contradictions, she discovers another side to her mother and returns to America unexpectedly changed and irrevocably touched.