The phenomenon of so-called 'War Brides' (Many were post-war during the occupation; and a few were grooms. See end note.) was indeed quite real, and although by no means limited to American soldiers, that is what I'll touch on here. It is hard to be exactly precise about the number of marriages contracted overseas by US military personnel, but estimates easily agree it was well over 100,000 such unions, a number which would include marriages to people in Allied powers such as Britain or Australia, liberated countries like Belgium, or conquered nations such as Germany or Japan.

The best numbers we have are based on those admitted to the United States as authorized by the War Brides Act of 1945, a law passed to allow the immigration of foreign military spouses outside of normal immigration quotas, under which about 114,000 spouses were admitted to the United States. The vast majority of these were Europeans, and roughly half of the total came from Anglo nations (Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). Spouses of Asian descent faced considerably more hurdles due to racial laws at the time which disallowed their immigration fo the United States based on their perceived racial inferiority. Only Chinese spouses were able to immigrate immediately, while those of South-Asian, Filipino, Korean, or Japanese extraction still were not allowed into the United States due to such laws. If wouldn't be until further laws and amendments were passed in 1946 (for the former two) and 1947/52 (the latter two) that they were finally allowed to come to the US with their G.I. spouse or fiancee.

While after the war, as can be seen, the US was reasonably accommodating towards soldiers who had a spouse or fiancee overseas, during the war such relationships were seen as something of a nuisance by military authorities. Under military rules laid out early in the war, marriages during the war required permission of the soldier's commanding officer, who had wide discretion for approval or disapproval. Their focus included not only the impact of marriages on unit performances, and relations with the locals, but also when outside of the European theater, but also what was considered the "most distressing" aspect, namely the potential for interracial marriage. This was driven both by the general views about racial inferiority present with many Americans, but also by specific intersections of race and misogyny which considered "white Anglo-Saxon" women suitable marriage material, and consigned others (especially Asian women, but also Italian) to the realm of sex workers suitable only for visits to a brothel, and not appropriate for marriage. This prejudice can be seen in both directions, in terms of disapprovals of marriage during the war, but also in the volume of marriages contracted.

Little such issue existed for white brides though, and especially those from Allied nations. In Britain, through which millions of American personnel passed through, marriage was practically encouraged in many circles, seen as a something which would further reinforce the bonds between the two countries, and approval was often merely a rubberstamping (unless of course the marriage was interracial). 35,189 brides from the UK entered the United States even before the end of 1945, and another 36,390 under the terms of the War Brides Act.

In comparison to countries with stronger prejudice is notable. Italy, whose citizens were nominally not restricted even by the original War Brides Act, but was nevertheless subjected to significant misogynist stereotyping about the suitability of Italian women for marriage, saw only 9,000 marriages despite a massive, and lengthy, presence by the US military there, barried both coming from mens own attitudes, but also barriers placed by military authorities about which many complained. And although such detailed statistics are not readily available, it is estimated that roughly half such marriages were G.I.s who had Italian heritage themselves. Moving further afield for a last comparison, the Philippines faced even stronger opposition, with strong racial prejudice, Filipino brides not even being allowed into the US under the original 1945 Act due to their race, misogynistic views on female Asian sexuality, and the added colonial legacy of American imperialism in the country all coalescing. Despite a massive US presence by the end of the war and beyond, only 2,215 Filipino brides were admitted to the United States, and a strong majority of them were married to Filipino-Americans, rather than white servicemen.

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