Japanese War Brides

The Japanese War Bride phenomenon, which occurred after the Second World War and when American soldiers were stationed in Japan, has its happy moments and also its unhappy ones. A film I saw recently, titled appropriately JAPANESE WAR BRIDE, doesn't flinch, but tells the problem cinematically as best it can. The 1952 film stars the by-now legendary Shirley Yamaguchi (more on her in another entry), Don Taylor, Marie Windsor, Cameron Mitchell, and others, and is an easy way to understand some of the societal and personal issues involved. Imagine leaving the country of your birth, the country of your culture, to live in a foreign land with sometimes little support but your husband, whom you depended on for everything. Almost 50,000 of such brides left their country to live in America.

There is the true story of the bride who want to look her best for her new American family, and wore a kimono for the occasion of meeting them, but the family was dismayed, hoping to have her wear a Western outfit. And then there is the story of such a strong love affair between the American soldier and his Japanese bride, that, after her death, he still honors her and writes to her family in Japan regularly. One cannot predict what takes place between a man and a woman. Even of different cultures.

Of course, film-wise, the presence of American soldiers in Japan inspired many more films, and is probably responsible for much of the Asian themes that were popular in the 1950s and very early 1960s.