A GI Baby is a child born to a Japanese woman by a military servicemember of the Allied Occupation Forces of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. GI Babies were typically

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

s due to the difficulties raising such children, and were also called "mixed orphans". Because the British Federal Occupation Force had taken measures to prohibit dating with non-white women from the viewpoint of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

, the soldiers could not obtain permission to marry a Japanese woman. If it was discovered that a child was born in violation of this, the child was forcibly separated from the family. The ban was abolished in 1952, and hundreds of war brides went to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and Britain, but it was reported that in many cases, tragedy still occurred.

Statistics

The Ministry of Health in Japan established Miki Kano on August 13, 1952, consisting of 20 experts Mixed-race child problem countermeasure study group (混血児問題対策研究会). 加納実紀代「「混血児」問題と単一民族神話の生成」、『占領と性 : 政策・実態・表象』収録 According to the summary of the Kanagawa Prefectural Council of Social Welfare in 1952, there were 276 mixed-breed children in the facility in the prefecture, which was the majority of the mixed-breed children in Japan at that time Child Welfare Facility. According to a survey conducted by Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1953, there were 4972 GI babies in Japan. Meanwhile, at that time

Elizabeth Saunders Home is a Christian orphanage located in the town of Oiso in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. History Elizabeth Saunders Home is an orphanage in Japan established in 1948 by Miki Sawada, a Mitsubishi heiress, with the original intent of housing birac ...

founder

Miki Sawada was a Japanese social worker popularly known as the mother of 2,000 American Japanese mixed orphans. Early life She was born in Tokyo, Japan on September 19, 1901. She was the oldest daughter of Baron Hisaya Iwasaki, who was known as the ric ...

announced the theory of 200,000 GI babies, but according to a survey by the

Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck ...

Foundation, the actual number is very high. Although it is difficult to grasp, it was said that there would actually be at least 20,000 to 30,000 GI babies in Japan at that time. According to the Diet response to the question of Shinkichi Ukeda in 1959 Koun Takataa (then Director of the Children's Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare), as of 1959, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has counted the number of mixed-breed children in Japan.

Later

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

it was found that the description of the entrance to Negishi Foreign Cemetery, which mentioned GI Babies, was deleted and rewritten by the Yokohama City Hall managing the graveyard while locals protested.GI Baby Information Board, deleted and rewritten by the city Yokohama / Negishi Foreign Cemetery
/ref> This information board was donated to Yokohama City by Yokohama Yamate

Lions Club The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, and the text was prepared in consultation between Yamate Lions Club and Yokohama City, but in 2000 it was rewritten to "There are many things, such as babies buried after World War II, whose burial names are unknown". The explanation in Japanese has the same content. What was deleted was an English sentence that read, "Many children born between foreign military personnel and Japanese women after World War II are buried".https://www.kanaloco.jp/news/social/entry-63508.html The Yokohama City Environmental Facilities Division does not specify the reason for the rewrite.

People who were born as GI baby

* Masao Kusakari 草刈正雄 * Makoto Ayukawa 鮎川誠 * Risa Akikawa 秋川リサ * Fujio Yamaguchi 山口冨士夫 * Michi Aoyama 青山ミチ * Aki Izumi 泉アキ * Kacias Naito カシアス内藤 * Helen Nishikawa 西川ヘレン * Joe Yamanaka ジョー山中 * Rinda Yamamoto 山本リンダ * Kairakutei Blakku 快楽亭ブラック (2代目) * Alice Jun 純アリス * Deni Tamaki 玉城デニー

References

{{reflist Aftermath of World War II in Japan Childhood in Japan Racism in Japan