ABSTRACT
Okinawan women who married Filipinos stationed in Okinawa began migrating to their husbands’ countries in the 1950s, mostly as individual marriage migrants, in contrast to the organized migration of war brides to the United States and Australia. This often-overlooked topic of Okinawan female migration to the Philippines during the immediate post-war years is situated in the context of post-war U.S. imperialism and Cold War Politics, as well as Japan’s defeat. Upon migration to the Philippines, these women experienced various hardships and were the object of discrimination from the locals. Thus, they created an identity among themselves as Issei or “first-generation,” indicating their migration experiences as a first-generation migrant, as well as their role as transmitters of culture.
