OPERATION WAR BRIDE

By Katie Bissell

Bissell |1
I had no rights in this country because the stupid Krauts have lost the war. I
was told that if I would ever go to court, I would get no help and no judge
would believe me because, quote, I am an American and do you think
anyone would believe the words of a stupid Kraut. 1
The term War Bride refers to a foreign woman who married an American
service member abroad as a result of U.S. mobilization for WWII. 2 Moving from their
countries of origin to the United States was a long process and difficult road that
resulted in valuable progress for the American people. In the statement above, a
German war bride in an abusive relationship with a service member had no choice
but to work to change American popular opinion and to progress civil liberties and
rights, to escape her situation. Her ability, as a German, to procure help in her
situation was a feat involving changing the hearts and minds of the American
people. These war brides were pioneers of change and had problems to overcome,
thus these war brides can be compared to the American women moving out West,
because they too, had Indians to shoot at-the Indians of possible prejudice,
coldness, and difference of custom.3
The struggle for a postwar stability of nations on the international scene
paralleled the fight to stabilize families at home. Domestic changes that took place
during the war, including the employment of women and womens rights and
freedoms took a step back as soldiers returned home. The new war brides became

1 Shukert, Elfrieda, and Barbara Scibetta, War Brides of WWII (Novato, CA: Presidio
Press, 1988), 229.
2 Ibid., 2.
3 Eric Bergerud, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning: The World of a Combat Division in
Vietnam (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), 224.

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victims and champions of civil rights in America, causing the issue of domestic
gender relations to resurface 4
These new foreigners also faced racial prejudices and discrimination. This
inequality was particularly hard for women who had entered into an interracial
marriage and women who were nationals of conquered states. Through their
struggles Americans became more racially tolerant and accepting, which set the
precedent for combating racial bigotry in the 50s and 60s.
American identity at the time was often synonymous with white homogeneity
and superiority. With the immigration of these war brides the American people
began to accept the difference in race and culture of these women and embrace the
changing American racial panorama. Today, we pride ourselves on our melting pot
of races and cultures that was created, in part, by war brides. These war brides
were also a cornerstone in changing national politics and they prompted Congress
to change the present immigration laws. War brides moved American society
forward by challenging and changing gender relations, racial tolerance and national
norms.
Survey of Previous Scholarship
Of the estimated one million women who married American service member
during and directly after WWII about 300,000 were able to successfully immigrate to
the United States.5 Thus, it is not surprising to find an abundance of storytelling and
memoirs intertwined in published scholarship on the subject of war brides. It is not

4 Susan Zeiger, Entangling Alliances: Foreign War Brides and American Soldiers in the
Twentieth Century (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2010), 128.

5 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 2.

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difficult to find stories of triumph and hardship that are about women meeting
American service members and then choosing to endure hardships for love. These
womens struggles changed the face of America. They challenged gender roles,
racism and affected American nationalism, which ultimately shaped American
tradition and society.
I will be combining all of these stories and memoirs into an objective look at
the places these war brides came from (over 50 countries) and explain how it has
affected the United States citizens and their culture. It is easy to find many accounts
of war brides from allied and axis countries, but I will be combing these stories to
compare and contrast their experiences. By looking at the difference between
English speaking brides and women whose first language was not English, I will
determine the differences in the experiences from women of different races, as well
as womens experiences from countries who did not support marriage to a foreigner.
Previous scholars on the subject have addressed the difficulties the interracial
couples faced in immigration to the United States and their ability to live lives at the
same standard of living as American couples. Scholars have looked at the issues
that prevented immigration and lowered the standard of living for foreign brides,
but there is less scholarship on how these war brides were able to affect the
American people and culture through these struggles.
War brides affected ideas of what it means to be American, they increased
tolerance of different people groups in the United States and helped move America
forward to where it is today. Though the topic seems like simple stories to pass
down through the generations, in reality these stories hold the lessons that has
made America so successful as a multicultural nation.

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Hey Honey, How about a date tonight: The makings of a War Bride
Between 1936 and 1946 an estimated 16 million Americans were mobilized;
these Americans were primarily young men between the ages of 18-30. 6 When
comparing the difference between the number of marriages as a result of World War
One to the considerably larger amount of marriages in World War Two, there are two
different factors to look at: the average age of the deployed American service
member and the average length of deployment. In WWI the minimum age of a
service member was 20, while in WWII it had dropped to 18. This meant that more
young men were being sent abroad before they had a chance to get engaged or
marry. They were also being sent abroad for a considerable longer amount of time
then the American Expeditionary Forces of 1917-1919. A postwar study showed
that, 85 percent of GIs who married foreign brides had served overseas for more
than two years, 30 percent for four or more years. 7 The term GI, meaning
Government Issue or General Issue, became a term that service members coopted, because they saw themselves as disposable as their government issued
equipment. Today it is a general term used to refer to anyone serving in the armed
services.8
This type of large scale, long term mobilization of young men happened in
many countries involved in WWII, so essentially the male population of a country
switched for foreign GIs. Even though the young women in each country were not
meeting men of their own nationality, that did not change the fact that these
6 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 1.
7 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 73.
8 Merrian Webster Dictionary. n.d., accessed May 3, 2014, http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/gi.

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women had a desire for love and a family. The large scale female immigration that
happened post WWII gives testimony to the importance of love and a family in the
lives of these women. In contrast to the immigrants of the 1920s, who came to
America for the promise of prosperity, the immigration post-WWII was, primarily for
the love of an American soldier. 9
These relationships began in a variety of ways and circumstances, depending
on the country of origin and the race of the woman. This section will look at the
situations, setting the stage for marriage, in Allied and Axis nations, specifically
looking at the case studies of Great Britain and Japan. In looking at the ways that
these relationships began and the politics behind them, one will be able to better
understand why America was changed by these war brides.
Great Britain
As many as three million American soldiers were stationed in Great Britain or
passing through during and directly after WWII. 10 Out of these three million an
estimated 100,000 married British women.11 The common language created a
stronger bond between the military and civilians, and the American military was
welcomed into Great Britain.
The military looked favorably upon relationships between American service
members and British women, resulting in few roadblocks to stop the fraternization
of these young people. Not only was this due to the common language, but also to
9 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 1.
10 Jenel Virden, Good-bye, Piccadilly: British War Brides in America, (Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1996), 17.
11 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 7.

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the fact that Britain was an allied industrialized nation. With growing questions
about prostitution and the rise in venereal disease, the Red Cross was charged with
the job of making sure the GIs met, what they considered, proper British women.
The Red Cross set up recreational centers for GIs all across the country that
held dances on the weekends for enlisted men. The local Womens Volunteer
Service, with help from the local churches, were in charge of screening all the young
women who wished to go to these dances to make sure they were in good standing
with the city. Being able to attend these dances was the height of social excitement
for young British women, and being able to work at one of these centers as a dance
hostess was the most coveted job for young women during the war. One young
British woman describes her first experience at one of these social events:
The dance was unforgettable. It was as though we had entered another
worldI couldnt believe the diversity of American men. Englishmen were
more or less stamped in the same moldBut the Americans! 12
Soon these types of recreational facilities and officers clubs began opening up
all over the countryside, and with it British American relationships. Cooperation was
key to maintain the British-American relationship during WWII, and the United
States was prepared to cooperate with regards to marriage.

Japan
The history and series of events leading up to the American occupation in
Japan produced a very different atmosphere that was hardly nurturing to courtship
and marriage. Japanese society treasured pure bloodlines and American men were

12 Ibid., 11.

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taught that the Asian race was inferior. However, despite popular opinion, the long
occupation still resulted in thousands of Japanese war brides.
The American occupation of Japan officially lasted from 1945 to 1952 and
brought new opportunities for Japanese women. In the first year of the occupation
over 500,000 soldiers were stationed in every prefecture in Japan and many
opportunities for base work opened for women. These jobs were highly sought after
because the rate of pay from the American government was higher than anything
they could make working for Japan and after the devastation to their population
many women became the primary provider for their families. With so many women
working on bases relationships naturally began, despite the anti-fraternization
policy and the belief that Americans would only rape, pillage and plunder.
Another element that led to the development of relationships between
American GIs and Japanese women was the fact that there were no longer enough
men to marry, and for a Japanese woman who dreamed of having a family or
children her only chance was the American occupiers. A Japanese census in 1947
recorded that, the number of men between 20 and 29 years old was 5.77 million,
while the number of women of the same age group was 6.78 million. 13 That is over
one million more women than men in the marrying age group.
Many women who could not find work also turned to prostitution, which was a
growing business near the bases. However, none of the prostitutes became war
brides. According to U.S. policy, a woman registered as a prostitute forfeited any
possibility of ever marrying a GI, for her record eliminated her as a candidate for

13 Keiko Tamura, Michi's Memories: The Story of a Japanese War Bride, (Canberra,
Australia: Pandanus Books, 2003), 95.

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marriage.14 This policy held for those who wanted to immigrate as a war bride,
regardless of their nationality.
The Modern Girl: Gender Roles and Relations
WWII slowly changed womens roles globally, from where they could advance
professionally to how they were able to manage their personal lives. Women were
able to move from the home into the industrialized working world, which changed
traditional gender roles and gave women a new sense of freedom. With this
freedom women were able to stretch the boundaries and challenge social norms.
Women werent the only agents of change in altering pre-defined gender
roles; the military, both foreign and domestic, helped create the modern woman just
as much as the women themselves. The militarys influence also stretched into
modern views of sex and relationships, tearing away at the old-fashioned views of
modesty and forever changing gender relations.
The Working Woman: Womens Rights in America
With the majority of the male workforce enlisted in the military and fighting
overseas, many women had to step out of their role as house maids and into the
role of urban workers. This phenomena changed gender roles and forwarded
womens rights. Women went from being seen as homemakers to bread winners,
which changed the social constructs of society. Many war brides experienced this
shift in traditional gender roles and with it new freedom in their own country. Little
did they know that they would be crusaders for the womens right to work and in
the United States.15
14 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 190.
15 Ibid., 234.

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Many war brides were well educated and were willing to make the sacrifices
so that their husbands could earn a degree through the GI bill. These women went
to work in all different fields to allow their husbands the opportunity to succeed. 16
The willingness of these women to shift into the workforce began a permanent
transition of women into the domestic economy.
Amidst the tales of romance and happy endings are also stories of abuse,
divorce and the struggle to survive. There were war brides who married American
service members and moved to the United States only to have their marriages fall
apart and be abandoned to fend for themselves and their children. These women
and their circumstances opened the door for womens right to work (which was
slowly disappearing post WWII) and womens services and the freedom to be able to
support themselves and their families without a man. 17
Some women whose language barrier made it difficult to work opted to stay
in their abusive relationships because it would be nearly impossible to find a job.
Having difficulty finding employment in the U.S., this [Japanese] woman
thought her only alternative would be to go to little Tokyo, work for tips,
something I didnt have to do in Japan. She chose to stay with her husband. 18
There were also many women able to escape their relationships and find
employment in the United States. A survey of divorced war brides asked what their
most important accomplishment in the United States was and the most common
answer was, standing on their own two feet. 19 This success was not without the
16 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 227.
17 Ibid., 230.
18 Ibid., 233.
19 Ibid., 234.

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help of new social programs and advocates. As a result of the new need of women
to be able to work and support themselves and their children the Red Cross, YWCA,
local businesses, government associations and churches banded together to
overcome this need. Through these organizations women received advice on
shopping, help with child care and classes on economics and job search
assistance.20 The creation of these social services and infrastructure was a direct
result of the needs of women post WWII, many of which were war brides.
Gender Relations: Sexual Liberalism
Traditional morals and social norms were rapidly turning into shorter skirts
and promiscuous outings. As one young lady put it, going around with an American
soldierwas daring for a young woman.21 The phenomenon of the modern girl,
who had greater choice over how to run her own life was expedited by the presence
of the American GIs who presented an opportunity for mystery, danger and
defiance. Many women who dated Americans wanted to express their new found
freedoms, including picking a partner of their choice. Many women who were in
relationships with or engaged or married to an American GI did so outside of
parental wishes and sometimes in blatant defiance of their guardians,
demonstrating the leap into an era of greater female independence.
With this independence came the idea of sexual liberalism. When comparing
WWI relationships to WWII, one of the biggest changes was the militarys stance on
sex. During WWI those in charge of soldier morale focused on soldier athletics,

20 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 238.

21 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 72.

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religious ministry, and wholesome entertainment. 22 However, the recreational
planners of WWII also recognized a service members need for a sexual outlet and
conducted a survey asking soldiers about their sexual practices. The Army asked
bold questions-for the time- and got frank answers that confirmed their need to
make this type of recreation available overseas.23 This campaign changed the
Armys practice from WWIs suppression of sex to the WWII strategy of prevention of
venereal disease. Prophylaxis, mainly the condom, became the pillar of the sexual
education campaign in the military. Mass distribution of condoms became the
militarys one stop solution for sexual education and disease prevention. 24
Prevention and contraceptives, at the time, was a new concept in the modern world.
The idea of safe sex was quite a shock to foreign women who, up until this
point, had only been educated in abstinence and were forbade from accessing
contraceptives. One soon-to-be war brides recounts her tale of encountering
contraceptives for the first time,
We arrived [at the Enlisted Mens Club]went into the ladies room and read
a sign that said prophylactics are available at the Main Desk, I assumed this
was yet another new kind of candy. Fortunately, I never made the mistake of
asking for some.25

22 Ibid., 75.
23 Office of the Secretary of Defense Research Division, Mediterranean Theater of
Operations, Veneral Disease Survey, June-August 1945, (Suvey, Records of the
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Research Division , 1945).
24 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 77.
25 Pamela Winfield, Melancholy Baby: The Unplanned Consequences of the G.I.'s
Arrival in Europe for World War II,
(Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group,
2000), 3.

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This shifting focus from the gentleman to the red-blooded soldier put women
and societies into a position to explore this new version of sexuality. Gender
relations as we see them today were significantly shaped by the interactions of
American GIs and their wartime partners.
Army pretty tough to marry26: The fight for interracial marriage
Kyo, a Japanese war bride, sums up the racial backlash she received in her
failed attempt to marry an enlisted American post WWII with, Army pretty tough to
marry.27 To say that marrying an American service member was tough was an
understatement for Kyo, her American soldier and the thousands of interracial
couples like them. During the 1940s and 50s the militarys hard stance against
interracial marriage coupled with Americas antimiscegenation laws, and for
Japanese brides the Asian Exclusion Act, made interracial marriage almost
impossible.28 Even if you were granted the right to marry, the prejudices these
young couples faced in the United States seemed insurmountable.
African American service members and their white European brides, as well
as black and white service members and their Japanese brides, faced the greatest
hardships in their struggle for the right to marry, but soon became a symbol of
racial transformation in American. These couples fought their right and as a result
championed some of the greatest successes in the civil rights movement of the
1950s. The soldiers who thought they left their fight for democracy on the

26 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 163.

27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., 180.

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battlefield faced a new war on the home front. As a Corporal in the Air Force put it,
the United States was not, fighting for that kind of democracy. 29
Black and White Interracial Marriage
Many African American service members and their white European brides
were shocked to find that after fighting a war for liberty oversees their interracial
marriage was banned in thirty states.30 These types of interracial marriages across
the color line would not be completely struck down until Loving v. Virginia in 1967,
when this institution was one of the last to win out against the Jim Crow segregation
laws.31
Post WWII the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) helped African American GIs marry and cohabitate with their white war
brides on a case by case basis. Interracial marriage was not a priority on the list of
civil rights for the NAACP or in any black movements because of the threat of
severe white backlash. The fear of blacks and whites copulating was the basis for
the copious amounts of social mixing segregation laws. 32 For the NAACP it was all
about the small victories to eventually amount in equal rights, they werent about to
attack the issue at the heart of the matter.
Personally for African Americans interracial marriage was at the bottom of
their priority list, because it raised questions about race loyalty and had the
potential to break up black communities. Gunner Myrdal conducted his famous
29 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 169.
30 Ibid., 166.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid., 168.

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study in the 1940s, revealing that reforming the marriage law had the lowest
priority on the civil rights agenda for African Americans, while white Americans
feared interracial marriage more than any other type of social mixing. 33
For black soldiers the problems began oversees. The military had a hard
policy against interracial marriage and would use all avenues available to deny
these marriages. Putting in an application was a dangerous game; not only were
these applications denied multiple times, but it could cause the service member to
be attacked, transferred or jailed. Their girlfriends and wives (if they managed to
marry-sometimes this was done illegally) would see equal harassment by white GIs
and military police. Hazel Simpkins, a white war bride, attested to this pressure from
the military to abandon her relationship,
My faith in humanitytouched bottom when a white GI from the South
actually beat me to my knees in an attempt to make me deny my love for a
Negro soldier. He hit me four times across the face, knocking me dizzy. Then
his fist caught me and I fell. Thats where you belong for runnin around with
niggers, he yelled.34
Simpkins story gives testimony to U.S. racial beliefs and practices at the
time. Unfortunately Hazel does not have the only heartbreaking story. African
American Corporal Scott and his white French fiance encountered similar hostilities
from white GIs.
Scott, his French fiance, and an Army colleague were prepared to enjoy
Fourth of July festivities in France in 1945. Encountering a group of white
soldiers, the interracial couple was set upon. One white man held Corporal
Scott at bay with a gun, while the other slapped the woman, who was
pregnant, hurling obscene invectives at her and calling the men niggers.

33 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 174.

34 Ibid., 173.

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Infuriated, the two black servicemen jumped on the three white soldiers
beating them into submission.35
For Scott his story does not have a happy ending. He was charged for
attacking the white soldiers and despite his testimony the officers in charge refused
to discuss the matter further. Despite these difficulties, black and white couples did
manage to marry and the hardships that continued once they made it to the United
States sparked these womens want and need to push for civil rights in America.
These women begin writing letters to and urging the NAACP to take up their
cause. They also wrote letters and articles for black publications that begin to
spread the word for change in the United States. Black editors grabbed up these
stories to use as a critique of American racism and attack the system of racial
segregation. Many black journalists saw these women and marriages as an
opportunity. Ollie Stewart, a famous black journalist, during the 1940s was a war
correspondent for Baltimores Afro-American. He saw no better timing, than in the
midst of these marriages, to begin a review of the antimiscegenation laws in the
United States. Through emphasizing these couples love as normal, he began
breaking down the assumptions that black and white love was vile and
unnatural.36 Given that many of these white war brides did not experience the
same kind of racism in their home countries, the racial innocence with which they
entered the United States gave hope to many that America could make the
progressive changes these foreign nations had already enacted.
Japanese American Interracial Marriage

35 Ibid., 171.
36 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 177.

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Japanese American couples faced even greater barriers than black and white
couples when trying to marry and immigrate to the United States. The perceived
racial and cultural difference of Asians by America created real policy and racial
bias. Occupation regulations barred marriage and the Asian Exclusion Act became
the excuse for the military to deny these marriages. The U.S. Immigration Law of
1924 excluded anyone with Asian lineage from immigrating to the United States "to
preserve the ideal of American homogeneity" 37 The act was revised in 1952 largely
due to the effort of these interracial wartime couples.
The road to changes in immigration law was a long one with little victories
along the way. Even in the midst of the creation of the War Brides Act in 1945
Congress still excluded Japanese war brides by citing the Asian exclusion in
immigration policy.38 In defiance of these regulations many American service
members openly married Japanese women in Shinto ceremonies that went
unrecognized by the United States government. Once they were legally married in
Japan it was easier to employ private lawyers and get help from powerful individuals
to appeal to Congress and be granted an exception as part of private immigration
legislation.39 White service members, as opposed to black service members, had a
belief that eventually justice would be done. They were white and thus they
deserved to marry whomever they please, they held a sense of their own
entitlement to take Asian women as wives. 40 Thus, many more white soldiers were
outspokenly defiant in their marriage to Japanese women then black soldiers.
37 The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act), (U.S. Department of StateOffice of the Historian. n.d.), accessed April 13, 2014,
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act.
38 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 181.
39 Ibid., 182.

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The most famous series of events of open defiance was the Twenty-fourth
Infantry Regiment stationed at Camp Gifu, Japan. In this regiment 400 out of 3,000
men had applied for permission to marry Japanese wives, which had all been
denied. Within weeks of the beginning of the Korean War the men were sent to the
front, according to the military command, to solve this growing interracial problem.
If the men left Japan their success rate for entering these interracial marriages
would be almost zero. Just days before their deployment the command cancelled all
leave and confined all the soldiers to base. Many soldiers went AWOL (absent
without leave) to see their Japanese girlfriends, the military police tried to round
them up but were met with heavy resistance. In the next days the scenes at the
train station were described as chaotic as police dragged Japanese women off the
trains and even tried to prevent affectionate interactions on the platform. 41 Camp
Gifu is a tragic love story that brought this issue to the attention of United State
decision makers.
The United States government began to recognize the growing problem and
created the Alien War Brides Act in July, 1947, allowing Asian war brides to
immigrate to the United States. Unfortunately, there was a catch; the waiver was
only good for 30 day after the creation of the bill. If you were not married (in a
ceremony recognized by the United States) by the following date (30 days later), in
August 1947 you were not allowed immigration to the United States. For many
Japanese American couples this was impossible. In August 1950 this bill was
reintroduced and extended until 1952 as a result of the Korean War. 42 Following the
40 Ibid., 184.
41 Zeiger, Entangling Alliances, 185.
42 Ibid., 181.

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Alien War Brides Act in 1952, the McCarran Walter Act of 1952 granted Asian
nationals the right to immigrate and to naturalization once and for all. 43 The fight for
equal immigration rights for Asian nationals was won due to the persistence of
these interracial wartime couples, but the Asian war brides faced the same
prejudices on the home front as did the war brides of black service members.
The antimiscegenation laws that applied to black and white couples back
home also applied to Japanese American couples. Similar to the NAACP the
Japanese-American Citizens League (JACL) came into existence in the late 1940s to
protest the treatment of Japanese Americans in the United States. 44 For the
Japanese war bride, not only did they face racial and cultural opposition in the
United States, but they also had to deal with being seen as the enemy in the eyes of
the American people. As WWII Japanese war brides began to change the hearts of
the American people they paved the way for thousands of Asian immigrants as a
result of the Korean War and the elimination of the Asian Exclusion Act.
Sweet Land of Liberty: Nationalism
So let it be with all of you who have made the choice of your heartsyou
may have memories infinitely dear of other people and of other places, but
your choice is set and those memories are better kept close to your hearts
and distant from your tongues.45
Becoming a citizen of the United States was, for many war brides, a difficult
choice. A choice that politically separated them from their home country, but

43 Ibid., 182.
44 Ibid., 187.
45 Cotton Minchin. It's Your Country-Forget Yesterday, Live In Today, Believe in
Tomorrow, (The Kansas City Star, August 1, 1946).

B i s s e l l | 19
enriched their life in the United States and helped to create the melting pot of
cultures that personifies America.
Am I American: Personal Identity
Post 1922 the naturalization laws in the United States required to-be citizens
to reside in the United States for five years before they could apply for citizenship.
With the war bride phenomena the residency requirement was shortened to two
years, if you were the spouse of an American citizen. 46 For some the choice to
become an American was easier than for others, who were forced to make the
decision out of necessity.
For Australian Stella Frey her decision to become a U.S. citizen was based
upon her fear of being separated from her children, who were U.S. citizens. She was
told that if her immediate family ever went to visit her extended family in Australia
and war broke out she would not be allowed back into the states with her children
and husband.47 Others like Briton Phyllis Totman became an American citizen so that
she could participate in local politics.48
For Germans, the law prior to May 24th, 1949 was, that if you married anyone
of other citizenship then German you automatically lost your German citizenship.
Additionally, when you married an American you werent automatically granted
citizenship, so German women were essentially homeless until they were able to
take the citizenship test. This was dangerous because if they were ever deported
from the United States they had nowhere to go, and would either have to wander till
46 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 243.
47 Ibid., 244.
48 Ibid., 245.

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a state took them in or claim refugee status in another state. Not having a passport
was dangerous and for German national Lya Cutcher she was almost not admitted
back into the United States after a trip to Germany in 1951. Her saving grace was
that she was a Pan Am stewardess at the time and the customs officials at the
airport knew who she was. Her road to citizenship was long because she ended up
separating from her husband, so she had to have residency for five years now
instead of two years to be able to take the citizenship test.

49

For many war brides answering the question, Am I an American? was

difficult. They loved their home countries that raised them and gave them their
education. They had no reason to want to give up their citizenship, but to fully
participate in American culture and politics citizenship became necessary.
Nationalism, loyalty and devotion to a nation,50 for these war brides was proven to
be a choice and not something you were born into.
Into the Melting Pot: American Nationalism
Nationalism promotes culture and furthers the interests of a nation because
the citizens feel connected. For many nations this connection comes through race or
religion, but for the United States this connection is found in the common struggles
and dreams of the people. The idea of nationalism being a choice means that these
war brides consciously decided that America was a nation they wanted to support
and shape. War brides helped create the idea of America as a melting pot through
introducing their own culture and customs to the American people.

49 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 246.

50 Merrin Webster Dictionary. n.d., accessed April 19, 2014, www.marrinwebster.com/nationalism.

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German war bride Uhlig Tucker did extensive research on German immigrants
in California and was an active part of the German-American tricentennial
celebration in 1983. She wrote an autobiography about her experience as a war
bride and lectured on many topics connected to German culture and society. 51
Similar to Tuckers research and lecturing many war brides also impacted American
culture through Universities. Dutch war bride Gertrude Reichenbach worked to
improve Dutch-American relations through founding and directing the Dutch Studies
program at the University of Pennsylvania. This program is one of the only Dutch
Studies programs in the United States and is jointly funded by the Dutch
government.52 Universities were not the only setting for cultural change and many
war brides took advantage of the freedom to create clubs and social groups.
Austrian war bride Adele Weaver founded the Austrian American Society of
Delaware which promotes cultural exchange between Austria and America and
works to send one music student ever year to the Mozarteum in Salzburg to study
music.53
Through contributions by war brides, America has been enriched culturally
and this knowledge has given America the tolerance and acceptance it now pride
itself on. Without these war brides contributions of their experiences, America would
not be enriched in the same ways as it is today. America sets itself apart from the
other nations by pointing out its diversity, tolerance and acceptance.

51 Shukert and Scibetta, War Brides of WWII, 250.

52 Ibid., 249.
53 Ibid.

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Love in War: Concluding their stories

You hear a song, look at an old photograph, and your heart beats wildly and
you remember the look in the eyes of a handsome soldieryou feel the
hands in your hair and on your face. You know you have been loved and
desired, and the rest does not matter. 54
The stories of war brides captures the imagination. They can be funny or sad
and full of experience and wisdom. These women came from war torn countries
armed with the will and desire to make their lives in America with their soldier work.
This kind of passion and determination resulted in changes in America that were not
foreseen. World War Two war brides played a vital role in changing gender roles and
relations, challenging racial prejudices and transforming American national identity.
America owes pieces of its progressive nature, multicultural tolerance and heritage
to these women, who gave up their lives, in countries around the world, to enrich
the United States.
War brides challenged gender roles by contributing to the familys wage, an idea
that was new post-WWII that foreign women took advantage of. These women
helped forward the womens right to work and the right to be able to support
oneself, with the creation of a social service system to specifically benefit women.
With these new freedoms war brides also contributed to changing gender relations.
The progressive idea of sexual liberalism which was embodied through the idea of
the modern girl, who had more control over her life and her future. This opened
the door for the introduction of contraceptives and made sexual relations less

54 Melynda Jarratt, Captured Hearts: New Brunswick's War Brides, (Fredericton, NB:
New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, 2008), 9.

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taboo. One can see the effects of this time period on the liberal and accepted
gender relations of today.
Racial intolerance was not a battle many war brides fought in their country of
origin, but had to crusade for in the United States. War brides came from countries
all over the world with ideas of acceptance and equality regardless of race and were
able to share these ideas to forward equality in America. These women were able to
change race and immigration in the United States and spur on the civil rights
movement of the 50s and 60s.
The immigration of war brides and other refugees post-WWII had a large
effect on American national identity. War brides had their own personal battles to
fight, in regards to making the decision to become an American citizen, but America
benefitted from their choice to do so. These war brides were able to share their
culture and knowledge with their new home and the experiences they had to offer
opened America up to the world. The contributions of these war brides have helped
America advance to the multicultural and tolerant nation is it today; and to think it
all started with a hello from a handsome American soldier.

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