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3. Magic Carpet included Operation War Brides in 1946
During the war American servicemen stationed overseas married local women in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and other areas where they were stationed (and in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines). During 1945 the Army’s halting steps to deliver on the promises that women and children of American servicemen would be brought to the United States led to intensive lobbying of Congress to ac. In December 1945 the War Brides Act was passed, removing the immigration quotas which had prevented many women from going to the United States, especially those from the Philippines and Japan. Operation War Brides began in early 1946, with most of those coming from Europe entering the United States through New York.
The women arriving in the United States entered a strange world, and often were reunited with a husband who seemed strange as well. For most of them, it was the first time they had seen their husband in civilian clothing, and the first time they had seen them in a civilian occupation. Rather than a dashing young pilot or a leader of troops, in many instances, they encountered a salesman or a mechanic, or in all too many cases a man out of work, living on the separation allowance of $20 per week for 52 weeks paid to separate servicemen by the United States. In many cases, their husbands were also suffering from the effects of what is now known as PTSD, then called combat fatigue, a subject that was considered taboo.