During and shortly after the US-Allied Occupation of Japan, the Japanese women who fraternized with soldiers often met opposition from their families and were shunned by other Japanese. Many mixed-raced children faced severe prejudice for being “impure” and born from the former enemy.

This symposium brings together various stakeholders to tell the stories of the war brides and their children. By focusing on the memories, realities and legacies of this community, this groundbreaking gathering will create opportunities for listening, discussing, healing, and empowering attendees.

FREE event, RSVP required 

JANM website 

Due to the Families Belong Together March on June 30, there may be street closures that impact the areas around the museum. The march is scheduled to begin at 11am in Grand Park which is about 1 mile away from JANM, so we're expecting there to be a lot of traffic, blocked streets, and limited parking in Little Tokyo. We encourage everyone to arrive early or take public transportation

Symposium Schedule

9:00am – 9:30am Welcome and Opening Remarks 

Fredrick Cloyd (author of Dream of the Water Children)

9:30am – 10:40am Session 1 – Occupation/Migration:  Women, Children and the U.S. Military Presence

Etsuko Crissey (author of Okinawa’s GI Brides: Their Lives in America)

Mire Koikari (University of Hawai‘i; author of Cold War Encounters in US-Occupied Okinawa: Women, Militarized Domesticity, and Transnationalism in East Asia)

Elena Tajima Creef (Wellesley College; author of Imaging Japanese America: The Visual Construction of Citizenship, Nation, and the Body and Following Her Own Road: The Life and Art of Mine Okubo)

10:40am – 11:50am Session 2 – Difference and Other: War-Bride and Mixed-race Children’s Representations

Margo Okazawa-Rey (Fielding Graduate University; Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University)

Sonia Gomez (University of Chicago; Visiting Scholar, MIT; author of From Picture Brides to War Brides: Race, Gender, and Belonging in the Making of Japanese America)

11:50am – 1:15pm LUNCH BREAK

1:15pm – 2:45pm Session 3 -- Book Launch of “Dream of the Water Children: Memory & Mourning in the Black Pacific”

Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd (author of Dream of the Water Children)

Curtiss Takada Rooks (Loyola Marymount University)

Angela Tudico (author of "They’re Bringing Home Japanese Wives": Japanese War Brides in the Postwar Era)

2 :45pm – 3 :00pm COFFEE/TEA BREAK

3 :00pm – 5 :30pm Session 4 – Film and Discussion of “Giving Voice, The Japanese War Brides”

Miki Crawford (producer/author of Giving Voice, The Japanese War Brides)

Kathryn Tolbert (Washington Post; Co-Director of Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: The Japanese War Brides)

5:30pm Closing Remarks: 

Fredrick Cloyd 

Duncan Williams (USC Shinso Ito Center and Hapa Japan Project)