Hello, War Brides

Bibliographic Data

ID4957785
AuthorsAyaka Yoshimizu (0000-0002-3020-1845, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume10
Issue1
Pages111-136
Publication date2010-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMeridians (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1536-6936 • E-ISSN: 1547-8424
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2979/mer.2009.10.1.111
OpenAlexW2080374784
LanguageEN
References cited15

This article examines "Hello, War Brides," a series of short, auto/biographical essays authored by two Japanese war brides from the state of Washington. I view this text as a product of collaborative "memory work." Based on a textual analysis of its narratives and form, I argue that this work represents individual war brides' memories as counter-memories that provide a new understanding of the experiences of Japanese war brides. Such an understanding could be thought of as an alternative to the monolithic and stigmatized images of Japanese war brides, imposed primarily by the Japanese mainstream media against which these women have struggled for decades. The production of the text also worked to reconstruct and renew the women's own memories in a positive light and to create a new form of community of remembrance. This essay aims to shed light on both the literary and the social significance of "Hello, War Brides" as a way to re-evaluate the Japanese war brides' transnational movement that has taken place in the years after its publication

Art · Literature · Mainstream · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis

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