November 2007 33
Before these British, or any other nationality, brides
Bibliography
could enter the US, certain legal obstacles had to be
removed. The immigration laws at that time prohib-
Cigarette Camps and “Point System”
ited the admission of foreigners who were ineligible
http://www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/
for citizenship (primarily Asians) as well as limiting
the entry of immigrants to 150,000 per year
Flight Officers
. Women
who could not enter the country due to the immigra- http://www.afa.org/magazine/1990/0390third.html
tion quotas were stuck in their home countries with-
out their husbands. T
GI Roundtable Series: Constructing a Postwar
o resolve this, Congress passed
the War Brides Act at the end of December 1945, and
World: Background and Context
which remained in effect for three years. This law
http://www.historians.org/projects/GIRoundtable/
provided for the admission of the foreign spouses and
Analysis/Analysis1_Context.htm
minor children of members/former members of the
Housing shortage
military by giving them non-quota status and eligi-
bility to become U.S. residents. So, even if the maxi-
http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/exhibits/ww2/services/
mum number of immigrants had already entered the
house.htm
United States in a given year, the war brides would
“Marriage in War Time” by Evelyn Duval in Mar-
still be accepted. In mid-1946, Congress passed the
riage & Family Living, Vol. 4, No. 4
Fiancées Act, which granted fiancées of US service-
men three-month visas as temporary visitors. If a
Marriage Rate per 1000 population
couple did not wed during that three-month period, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/
the fiancée would be returned home. With logistics vsrates1940_60.pdf
and laws all arranged, the first official sailing of a
‘war bride’ ship finally occurred on January 26, 1946.
Marriage Policy for Military women
The vessel was the S.S. Argentina, operated by the http://womensmemorial.org.H&C/Collections/
Moore-McCormack Line. The ship sailed from marriagepolicy.html
Southampton with passengers of 452 brides, 173 chil-
National Archives Access to Archival Databases
dren, and 1 groom. The ship’s master, Thomas N.
(AAD)
Simmons, had radioed ahead to New York and re-
quested that the Statue of Liberty be lit up. The Statue
http://aad.archives.gov/aad
was lit, for the first time since World War II, for the
Population
Argentina’s arrival during the early morning hours of
February 4, 1946. Most of the war brides had pleas-
US Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/statab/hist/
ant experiences. In some cases, stories told by GI
HS-01.pdf
husbands turned out to be exaggerated, but for the
SS Argentina
most part, the war brides adjusted well to their new
lives and adopted country. Most war brides blended
http://moore-mccormack.com/SS-Argentina-1938/
seamlessly into their new American life that, after a
War-Brides-1.htm
time, they became simply Americans, only one more Time Magazine
immigrant in a country of mostly immigrants and de-
scendants of immigrants. Follow-up histories suggest
War Brides, March 30, 1942 http://www.time.com/
that approximately 80% of these war marriages sur
time/magazine/article/0,9171,773155,00.html
-
vived and prospered.
Marriage by the Book, April 20, 1942
And so, it seems that the words of the Roman poet
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/
Virgil —”omnia vincit amor” or “love conquers all”,
0,9171,790351,00.html
including war and bureaucracy, rang as true in the
Home by Christmas? Monday, Dec. 17, 1945
1940’s as they did in the past. For all of our sakes, I
hope it continues to be so.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/
0,9171,776490,00.html
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