Japanese War Brides: Across A Wide Divide
"Japanese War Brides: Across a Wide Divide" explores the story of the more than 45,000 Japanese women who immigrated to the United States after World War II and how their bold passage reshaped communities across the country.
All Exhibits & EventsExhibition Overview
The Japanese War Brides: Across a Wide Divide traveling exhibition tells the extraordinary story of over 45,000 Japanese women who married American servicemen and immigrated to the United States after World War II. These women, once dehumanized as the enemy, defied societal norms, as well as racial and gender barriers, reshaping communities across the country. Their bold journey played a pivotal role in altering immigration laws, redefining race relations, and expanding the meaning of American identity.
Rooted in the research of three daughters of Japanese war brides, Japanese War Brides: Across a Wide Divide is both a tribute to the courage of these women and the legacies they left behind, as well as a reflection on broader themes of immigration, identity, and the adaptability of the human spirit.
Japanese War Brides: Across a Wide Divide was developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the National Museum of American History, and War Bride Experience, Inc. This exhibition was made possible through federal funding from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, with additional support from the Sachiko Kuno Philanthropic Fund.
The Japanese War Brides Oral History Archive
The Japanese War Brides Oral History Archive is an online collection of 40 stories (3 to –10-minute audio stories with photographs) of Japanese women who married American servicemen after World War II and came to the United States. The narratives are told by the Japanese war brides — now in their late 80s and 90s — and their families to a daughter of a Japanese war bride, journalist Kathryn Tolbert. She interviewed more than 100 people — war brides, their husbands, children, grandchildren, in-laws — in 20 states from 2015 to 2019. The interviews were conducted in person, with a digital recorder. Kathryn scanned family photos at the interview and later combined parts of the interview with photos to create short stories for the archive, which combines journalism and traditional oral history.
Louisiana interview: Yoshiko Arakaki and Eugene Dale Skains
If you are or are the descendant of a Japanese war bride and are interested in being interviewed, please contact the Curator, Anne Mahoney at Anne.Mahoney@SOS.LA.Gov
For Teachers
Additional Research
These stories were gathered as part of the SITES exhibition Japanese War Brides: Across a Wide Divide during its time on display at Louisiana’s Old State Capitol March-June 2026.
Yoneko Sugimura Moon
(1936 - 2025)
Yoneko Sugimura survived the atomic bomb the United States detonated over Nagasaki by hiding in tunnels, but lost her mother to radiation cancer, leaving her and her six siblings orphaned. Yoneko’s brother raised the family.
In her 20s, Yoneko loved the western actress Audrey Hepburn and cut her hair to imitate Hepburn’s signature look in the 1953 movie Roman Holiday. Yoneko even modeled for a local cosmetic company while in Japan.
Yoneko met Holsapple when he was stationed in Japan in the 1950s. They married and moved back to the United States. Holsapple left Yoneko several years after the birth of their daughter, leaving Yoneko to work to support her family in California. Yoneko married Larry R. Moon, a Sgt. Major in the USMC she met while still in Japan. Larry remained a Marine his whole life, retiring in Lafayette, Louisiana, where Yoneko became a cultural ambassador until her death in 2025.
Yoneko coordinated an immersive exchange experience for Lafayette students with families in Japan, brought Dudley Lastrapes to Japan, coordinated bringing a Japanese baseball team to ULL, and brought Japanese performers to Festival international.
Emiko Noda Comeaux
(1928 - 2022)
In compliance with AFFE/ 8A Circular 600 – 240, dated 10 January 1955, request that a files check for marriage be conducted on Miss NODA, Emi, prospective alien spouse of Specialist Third Class Euceville F. COMEAUX Jr, RA 18 203 910, presently a member of the command.
- U.S. Army Garrison Camp Kokura APO3, February 1957. From the archives of the family.
Having checked the records of Police and Counterintelligence files, the Army gave Euceville “Fred” Comeaux from Providence Street, New Iberia, Louisiana permission to marry Emiko “Emi” Teresa Noda from Kyomachi Yukuhashi City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Emi met Fred while she was in the Army base Catholic church choir, which Fred directed. They had three marriage ceremonies, two civil services and one Japanese.
Emi was pregnant with her first of four children when she and Fred traveled back to his parent’s house in New Iberia, Louisiana. Fred worked at Pelican Aviation until retirement and Emi raised their children. When the youngest, Linda, started school, Emi became a seamstress for private clients and later Beall’s Department Store. She also made Mardi Gras ball gowns, including her own that she wore to the annual ball. Emi and Fred became pillars of the local church and performing arts communities, directing plays, building sets, and sewing the costumes.
Haruko Kawauchi Harvison
(1935 - 2018)
When Haruko Kawauchi met Air Force serviceman Robert Harvison in Okinawa, she was already a widow with a small child. Robert repeatedly returned to the boutique where Haruko worked, but she said she would not marry someone in the military. When Robert completed his tour, he returned to New Iberia to set up a life and go back for Haruko. She finally agreed to marry him, and they were married January 30, 1970. Haruko had ideas about how America was going to be. New Iberia was not what she expected, but she built a life and a community in Louisiana. She became Baptist, learned to cook Louisiana food, and eventually gave up her Japanese citizenship by becoming an American citizen (Japan does not allow dual citizenship). Robert and Haruko raised two children: her son from Japan and their daughter, Angela.
Haruko eventually found other Japanese War Brides and immigrants to gather once a month in New Iberia and spend the day together, cooking traditional food and speaking in their native language.
Yoko “Betty” Iwasa Godeau/Wells
(1934 - 2025)
Yoko grew up in Akashi, Japan. Yoko was a nurse who met Walter Joseph Godeau (1932 – 2017) while he was stationed in Kobe, Japan. Yoko was raised in her grandparents' home with her mother after her father died. Yoko’s mother, Yoshiko, remarried to Tsukuda, giving Yoko two brothers. Yoko’s grandparents were textile makers. Before she moved to the United States, Yoko was called Betty, and continued to answer to that in America unless she was meeting with her Japanese friends.
The story goes that Yoko met Walter while she was treating a burn he suffered as a cook for the army. Walter enlisted at 18, although he tried to enlist earlier but was sent away because of his age. Walter was from a sharecropping family in Opelousas, Louisiana. He was raised with four siblings.
Yoko and Walter married March 17, 1953 in a courthouse. Walter was discharged after four years and returned to Opelousas via Seattle. Yoko’s daughter felt that her mother was disappointed by the emptiness of Opelousas. She had her first child in 1955, second in 1957, and her third, Janet, in 1959. Yoko had many odd jobs: a chauffeur, a retail employee (for clothing discounts), and a business owner in Lake Charles during the early 1970s for her store, Yoko’s Oriental Gift Shop.
Yoko and Walter divorced. She remarried to Michael Wells in 2000, but he died before she did. These tragedies did not dampen Yoko’s love of life. At the time of her death at 90, Yoko was in a relationship.
