War brides

Identification Foreign nationals who married American and Canadian service personnel during and shortly after World War II

The numerous wartime, cross-cultural marriages spurred special legislation allowing nonquota immigration of war brides and travel at government expense to their North American destinations. War brides settled all across the continent, and tried hard to fit into their new homes and communities. Their presence was a reminder of the international roles that emerged for the United States and Canada during the 1940’s.

Romance and marriage was a predictable, if peripheral, result of sending large numbers of young, unmarried men overseas for training and combat during World War II. Once the wartime deployment began, soldiers from the United States and Canada spent tours in overseas English-speaking countries—Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand—before they were shipped to war zones. This caused a wave of service members wanting to marry in these countries. At first, the American government forbade such unions. When this policy proved unenforceable, the government changed regulations to allow servicemen to marry foreign nationals, but only with the permission of their commanding officers and the completion of a daunting amount of paperwork. Because most service members were sent to combat zones soon after they attained permission to marry, questions about how such couples would be reunited and what their citizen status would be were left to be settled after the end of the war.

The Wartime Setting

In English-speaking countries the Red Cross and other volunteer groups sponsored dances and canteens where servicemen could meet “respectable” young women of the host country. Most eligible young men of these areas had already been assigned to combat areas, so there was no shortage of hostesses. Other relationships started with chance meetings or because the couple worked together in military or war-related jobs. As American and Canadian troops advanced through North Africa, Italy, and northern Europe, they were greeted as liberators by most civilian populations. Although the pace of war advances and a language barrier allowed fewer formal opportunities to meet romantic partners, many servicemen did meet women during these campaigns and formed lasting ties. In these countries, civilians endured severe shortages, sometimes to the point of near-starvation. The G.I.’s had access to candy, cigarettes, and other food and sundries almost unavailable elsewhere in war-torn Europe. A gift of such items, shared with a woman’s family, often quelled initial suspicions.

The only populous Pacific country where Allied servicemen arrived as liberators was the Philippines, an American territory when invaded by Japan in 1942. Although both Filipino mores and American racial attitudes tended to discourage cross-cultural relationships, close to one thousand marriages resulted between native women and American service personnel.

War-related marriages between North American soldiers and German or Japanese nationals did not occur until later in the decade. The occupation authorities in both countries at first forbade fraternization with local citizens. This policy proved impossible to enforce. Within a year or two of the end of the war, the provisions were modified, and marriages began to occur. Permission for them was more difficult to obtain, especially in Japan, where strict time limits for approval and exclusionary racial laws added to the barriers.

Characteristics of War Brides and Grooms

Older and supposedly wiser adults of all nations tended to view most wartime cross-national romances with disapproval. The typical prospective bridegroom in such matches was a young draftee in his late teens or early twenties, with little prior job experience before his military service. Their brides tended to be even younger—seventeen-year-olds were not uncommon—with little knowledge of the world beyond their hometowns. Brief courtships, promises made under the looming threat of bombardment or death in battle, or duress of pregnancies, hardly seemed promising ways to begin marriages. Add to this the uniforms’ blurring of normal markers of social class and family background, and dubious military officials and parents seemed to have reason on their side.

Not all the marriages fit this profile. Noteworthy war brides included Anna Chan (later known as Anna C. Chennault), a journalist and daughter of a Chinese consul, who married Major General Claire Lee Chennault, commander of the Flying Tigers in China. Monica Dickens, a great-granddaughter of famed British novelist Charles Dickens and a writer herself, married Commander Roy Stratton of the U.S. Navy. Gloria Pablo, daughter of a prominent Filipino judge, married American Captain Mel Montesclaros in a society wedding held at an archbishop’s palace.

The numbers of foreign men marrying American and Canadian women women were smaller than the numbers of foreign women marrying North American men but were not negligible. One publicized war bridegroom was Belgian resistance fighter Roger Charlier, who married an American army nurse. Their fictionalized courtship experiences were the bases of a 1949 film comedy, I Was a Male War Bride, which starred Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan. In real life, Charlier became a professor of oceanography after moving to the United States.

Reception in the United States

Some newly minted spouses crossed the Atlantic before the end of the war, traveling on a space-available basis in returning troop transports, hospital ships, or even aircraft. This program was kept confidential. Most war brides had to remain in their home countries until hostilities ceased and legislation eased their transit to their husband’s home country. On December 28, 1945, the U.S. Congress passed the War Brides Act, allowing nonquota entry for alien spouses and other dependents of any citizen who had served honorably in the armed forces during World War II. Such dependents were also allowed to file papers for citizenship early, after only two years of residence in the United States. During an era when strict national-origin quotas severely limited immigration from some nations, the nonquota provision was a great boon. It especially helped brides from New Zealand, the Philippines, and China, whose annual quotas were limited to around one hundred immigrants per country. Six months later, the Fiancées Act was enacted, granting three-month visas to foreign nationals engaged to current and former U.S. armed forces members. Visa recipients were also given permanent immigrant status when their marriages took place within the three-month time frames.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Canadian governments allocated ships to carry war brides and other dependents to their shores. Ships ranged from the luxury liner Queen Mary to hastily converted troop transports. Crowded conditions prevailed on the voyages, and many crossings were memorable for rough weather conditions and sick babies. The trips did provide an opportunity for meeting other war brides. Often the friendships formed on board lasted a lifetime.

When reunited, young couples often had to live with in-laws because of postwar housing shortages. Culture shock, stress from veterans’ job searches, and disappointment over living conditions tested the marriages. Homesickness was another hazard, with young women suddenly thousands of miles away from parents and friends. Their reception from communities and family members varied from resentment to warm hospitality. Most people did try to welcome the war brides, whose efforts to adopt their new country’s ways helped bridge the gaps.

An estimated one million foreign spouses of armed service members immigrated to the United States during World War II and the postwar years. Around forty-eight thousand European women married Canadians and went to that country during the same period. Despite dire predictions, the majority of these marriages endured and even flourished, their existence adding a unique touch to the mosaic of these nations’ cultures.

Impact

Many war brides used their backgrounds and talents in careers and in family life. The larger impact of their presence was diffused by bringing an awareness of the larger world even to small, isolated North American communities.

The War Brides Act was a first crack in restrictive American immigration laws of the mid-twentieth century. The nonquota admission of Asian war brides showed officials and citizens that Asians could assimilate and become Americans. This change in sentiment ultimately made possible the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which dismantled the existing race-based quota system. The Chinese American subculture was drastically changed by the War Brides Act. Prior to World War II it had been largely a bachelor society. Many Chinese American men who served in the war already had wives, some married by proxy, who could not come to the United States. The legislation gave their wives opportunities to immigrate, and a real Chinese American culture with family life evolved.

War brides formed clubs and networks, some of which endured for years. Canadian war brides were especially active in making these connections. A war bride museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, commemorates their experiences.

Bibliography

Friedman, Barbara G. From the Battlefront to the Bridal Suite: Media Coverage of British War Brides, 1942-1946. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007. Study of media portrayal of war brides, which shifted from negative to positive within a few years. Suggests press attitudes influenced couples’ behavior.

Jarratt, Melynda. Captured Hearts: New Brunswick’s War Brides. Fredericton, N.B.: Goose Lane Editions, 2008. Exemplary survey by the foremost historian of Canadian war brides. The subjects’ stories reveal successes, failures, and sometimes bewilderment in their new lives.

Shukert, Elfrieda Berthiaume, and Barbara Smith Scibetta. War Brides of World War II. New York: Penguin, 1989. Inclusive overview of World War II-era, cross-national marriages in all theaters of war. Contains bibliography, photos, and the text of relevant laws.

Winfield, Pamela. Melancholy Baby. Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 2000. Personal accounts of “G.I. babies” of American fathers; some were raised in the United States, others were abandoned in Europe.

Zhao, Xiaojian. Remaking Chinese America: Immigration, Family, and Community, 1940-1965. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Scholarly but accessible account of the impact Chinese war brides had on immigration policy and on Chinese American enclaves.