War Brides

Marriages Between Foreign Nationals and Military Personnel in Europe and Asia

Between 1939 and 1946, some 16 million Americans who were young, single men between the ages of 18 and 30 mobilized for the war effort. Consequently, as many as 1 million women from over 50 countries, both Allied and Axis nations, married Allied soldiers, particularly American soldiers, between 1942 and 1952. Various jobs catering to the military forces, ranging from interpreters and sales clerks at post exchanges to housemaids, were created. Many of these working women met their prospective husbands while on the job. Although American soldiers who married foreign nationals were predominantly white, other racial and ethnic groups, such as African Americans, were also involved in wartime and postwar marriages.

Women from European countries such as Britain, Germany, and Italy and women from Australia made up early cohorts of war brides who entered the United States, which was the major destination but not the only one. For example, marriages between British women and American servicemen took place as early as 1942. It is a well-publicized fact that 70,000 British war brides entered the United States during 1946 alone. Nearly 48,000 European women, the majority of whom were British, married Canadian troops who served in Great Britain during World War II; these women entered Canada. In Oceania, about 16,000 American G.I.s stationed in Australia and New Zealand married mostly Australians and, to a lesser extent, New Zealanders.

Later, marriages between G.I.s and local women began taking place in postwar Japan under U.S. occupation. The U.S. victory over Japan in World War II brought nearly half a million U.S. occupation troops to the war-torn country, overshadowing the presence of U.S. military allies. Consequently, an estimated 55,000 to 100,000 Japanese women married American servicemen after the arrival of U.S. military forces. The U.S. military mobilization for the Korean War also facilitated marriages involving American G.I.s and Korean women. Because of continuing American military presence in Asia after World War II, Asian brides of American servicemen gradually outnumbered the European brides by the mid-1950s. Within Asia, marriages between Japanese women and G.I.s were the most numerous, but their marriage [Page 2150]rates declined after they reached their peak years in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. The marriage trends gradually shifted to other Asian countries, such as South Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam, which reflected the trajectory of U.S. military involvement in these Asian countries during the Cold War.

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