1. Philippine-American War

Due to the Philippine Insurrection, a few U.S. servicemen would take Filipinas as their wives, with documentation as early as 1902 of one immigrating with their servicemember husband to the UK. These Filipinas were already U.S. nationals, when immigrating to the United States, making their legal status significantly different from previous Asian immigrants to the US.^[1]

2. War Brides in World War II

A US serviceman and a British girl in Bournemouth, England, 1941.

2.1. United States

During and immediately after World War II, more than 60,000 U.S. servicemen married women overseas and they were promised that their wives and children would receive free passage to the U.S. The U.S. Army's "Operation War Bride", which eventually transported an estimated 70,000 women and children, began in Britain in early 1946. The press dubbed it "Operation Diaper Run". The first group of war brides (452 British women and their 173 children, and one bridegroom) left Southampton harbor on SS Argentina on January 26, 1946 and arrived in the U.S. on February 4, 1946.^[2] Over the years, an estimated 300,000 foreign war brides moved to the United States following the passage of the War Brides Act of 1945 and its subsequent amendments, of which 51,747 were Filipinos^[3] and an estimated 50,000 were Japanese.^[4]

Robyn Arrowsmith, a historian who spent nine years researching Australia's war brides, said between 12,000 and 15,000 Australian women had married visiting U.S. servicemen and moved to the U.S. with their husbands.^[5] Significantly, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Newfoundland women married American servicemen during the time of Ernest Harmon Air Force Base's existence (1941–1966), in which tens of thousands of U.S. servicemen arrived to defend the island and North America from Nazi Germany during World War II and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Many of these war brides settled in the U.S., so much so that in 1966 the Newfoundland government created a tourism campaign specifically tailored to provide opportunities for them and their families to reunite.^[6]

2.2. Great Britain

Some war brides came from Australia to Britain aboard HMS Victorious following World War II.^[7] Roughly 70,000 war brides left Britain during the 1940s.^[8]

2.3. Australia

English war brides who arrived in Brisbane in October 1945

In 1945 and 1946 several Bride trains were run in Australia to transport war brides and their children travelling to or from ships.

In 1948, Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell announced that no Japanese war brides would be allowed to settle in Australia, stating "it would be the grossest act of public indecency to permit any Japanese of either sex to pollute Australia" while relatives of deceased Australian soldiers were alive.^[9]

About 650 Japanese war brides migrated to Australia after the ban was lifted in 1952 when the San Francisco Peace Treaty came into force. They had married Australian soldiers involved in the occupation of Japan.^[10]

2.4. Canada

47,783 British war brides arrived in Canada accompanied by some 21,950 children. Since 1939, most Canadian soldiers were stationed in Britain. As such, about 90% of all war brides arriving in Canada were British. 3,000 war brides came from the Netherlands, Belgium, Newfoundland, France, Italy, Ireland and Scotland.^[11] The first marriage between a Canadian serviceman and a British bride was registered at Farnborough Church in the Aldershot area in December 1939, just 43 days after the first Canadian soldiers arrived.^[11] Many of these war brides emigrated to Canada, beginning in 1944 and peaking in 1946. A special Canadian agency, the Canadian Wives' Bureau was set up by the Canadian Department of Defence to arrange transport and assist war brides in the transition to Canadian life. The majority of Canadian war brides landed at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, most commonly on the following troop and hospital ships: Queen Mary, Lady Nelson, Letitia, Mauretania, and Île de France.^[12]

The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 has exhibits and collections dedicated to war brides.^[13] There is a National Historic Site marker located at Pier 21, as well.^[14]

2.5. Italy

During the campaign of 1943–1945, there were more than 10,000 marriages between Italian women and American soldiers.^[15][16]

From relationships between Italian women and African-American soldiers, "mulattini" were born; many of these children were abandoned in orphanages,^[15] because at the time interracial marriage was not legal in many U.S. states.^[17][18]

2.6. Japan

Several thousand Japanese who were sent as colonizers to Manchukuo and Inner Mongolia were left behind in China. The majority of Japanese left behind in China were women, and these Japanese women mostly married Chinese men and became known as "stranded war wives" (zanryu fujin).^[19][20] Because they had children fathered by Chinese men, the Japanese women were not allowed to bring their Chinese families back with them to Japan so most of them stayed. Japanese law only allowed children fathered by Japanese fathers to become Japanese citizens. It was not until 1972 that Sino-Japanese diplomacy was restored, allowing these survivors the opportunity to visit or emigrate to Japan. Even then, they faced difficulties; many had been missing so long that they had been declared dead at home. ^[21]

3. Korean War

6,423 Korean women married U.S. military personnel as war brides during and immediately after the Korean War.^[22]

4. Vietnam War

8,040 Vietnamese women came to the United States as war brides between 1964 and 1975.^[23]

5. 2003 Iraq War

War brides from wars subsequent to Vietnam became less common due to differences in religion and culture, shorter durations of wars, and direct orders. As of 2006, about 1,500 visa requests had been made by U.S. military personnel for Iraqi spouses and fiancées.^[24] There have been several well-publicized cases of American soldiers marrying Iraqi women.^[25][26]