Picture Bride - The Marriage Process

The Marriage Process

These Japanese and Korean women got the name picture brides because the men in Hawaii and the United States sent pictures back to their home countries in order to find a bride. Family members, often with the help of a go-between (called a nakodo in Japanese and a joong-mae jaeng-i in Korean), used these photos to try to find wives for men who sent them. When looking at prospective brides the go-betweens looked at the family background, health, ages and wealth of the women. The process of picture bride marriage was modeled after traditional arranged marriage (called miai kekkon in Japanese and Joong-mae-kyulhon in Korean). Picture bride marriage was not much different from these arranged marriage customs, except instead of the man having little role he had no role. Once the bride’s name was entered into her husband’s family registry, the marriage was considered official in Japan, and she was eligible for travel documents to the U.S. or Hawaii. However, even though this was sufficient in their home countries, it was not considered a valid form of marriage by the American government. Because of this, mass wedding ceremonies were held at the dock or in hotels subsequent to the brides’ arrival.