Immigration from Asian countries was severely restricted and anti-miscegenation laws were still on the books in many states. Children of these marriages would have been mixed race at a time when school segregation still existed. Legally, what status did these relationships have? How were active duty soldiers with Asian families treated on military bases in the US? Was there a difference in how white soldiers and soldiers of color with Asian wives were treated? What resources were available to these women once in America—were there community organizations for war brides from different countries, for example? How were these Asian women and their children treated in the US, and did the fact that they were “war brides” earn them different treatment than they might otherwise have received?

My Hispanic grandfather married a Korean woman he met while stationed in Korea after the war, and apparently there was a relatively large community of Korean wives on the base they called home in the US. They don’t talk much about their experiences but I’m curious what life might have been like for them and other families like them.