Interracial Marriage in Occupied Japan
In her first year as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California, a very astute graduate professor hinted to Regina Lark that the topic of Japanese “war brides” was an idea worth pursuing. Consequently, one thing led to another thing which led to the next thing (as these things do), which led to a 450-page dissertation manuscript titled, They Challenged Two Nations: Marriages Between Japanese Woman and American GIs, 1945-to-the-Present, completed 7 years after that hint.
Although Regina eventually transitioned her academic life, to the life of an entrepreneur, her work on “the brides” is now an essay, “Interracial Marriage in Occupied Japan,” in a 2021 anthology, Women’s Experiences of the Second World War: Occupation, Exile, and Everyday Life. Shortly after that publication, Lark donated her trove of audio cassette tapes – filled with the voices and stories of Japanese women in their 70s and 80s, living in the US since the 1950s. The tapes also included interviews with their American born husbands, and a group interview with the adult children who accompanied their mothers to Japan for the Nikkei International Marriage Society Convention, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan.
Regina Lark is joining us this week because she still loves talking about her research on the brave women and men who transgressed many boundaries to become the largest group of interracially married people in the US at that time.
In 2008, Dr. Regina Lark founded A Clear Path: Professional Organizing and Productivity. Regina is a featured speaker and educator on issues ranging from productivity, hoarding, and women’s leadership. This past October, Regina published her third book, Emotional Labor: Why A Woman’s Work is Never Done and What To Do About It.
As a Certified Professional Organizer CPO®, Regina is a specialist in boomer and senior downsizing, residential organizing, and life transitions. With an additional Certification in Chronic Disorganization, she works with clients who are challenged by ADHD and other brain-based conditions.
Dr. Lark is a current Board member of OPICA Adult Day Care Center. She earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of Southern California, writing a dissertation on interracial marriages between Japanese women and American GIs after World War 2.
For fun she plays golf and tennis, and writes goofy songs about clutter.