War Brides in World War II
During and immediately after WWII, more than 60,000 servicemen that married women overseas were promised that their wives and babies would be delivered to their doorsteps free of charge. The US Army's "Operation War Bride", which would eventually transport more than 70,000 women and children, began in Britain in early 1946. The first batch of war brides – 455 British women and their 132 children – arrived in the US on February 4, 1946. The RMS Mauretania left Liverpool, England, on 4 February 1946 as the first dedicated war bride ship to Canada bound for Pier 21 in Halifax. One estimate says that there were 300 thousand foreign war brides that came to the United States following the passage of the War Brides Act of 1945, of which 51,747 were Filipino.
About 650 Japanese war brides migrated to Australia after the ban on Japanese migration, imposed at the outbreak of the Pacific War, was lifted in 1952 when the San Francisco Peace Treaty came into force. They had married Australian soldiers involved in the Occupation of Japan.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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Of April, May, of June and July-flowers;
I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides and of their bridal cakes;
I write of youth, of love, and have access
By these to sing of cleanly wantonness;”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
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—Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)