Homogamy and Intermarriage of Japanese and Japanese Americans With Whites Surrounding World War II

Abstract

Although some sociologists have suggested that Japanese Americans quickly assimilated into mainstream America, scholars of Japanese America have highlighted the heightened exclusion that the group experienced. This study tracked historical shifts in the exclusion level of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the United States surrounding World War II with homogamy and intermarriage with Whites for the prewar (1930)(1931)(1932)(1933)(1934)(1935)(1936)(1937)(1938)(1939)(1940) and resettlement marriage cohorts. The authors applied log-linear models to census microsamples (N = 1,590,416) to estimate the odds ratios of homogamy versus intermarriage. The unadjusted odds ratios of Japanese Americans declined between cohorts and appeared to be consistent with the assimilation hypothesis. Once compositional influences and educational pairing patterns were adjusted, however, the odds ratios increased and supported the heightened exclusion hypothesis. KeywordsAsian/Pacific Islander families; family diversity; interracial marriage; log-linear analysis; mate selectionOver the past few decades, some sociologists have argued that the significance of race declined for Blacks and other racial or ethnic minority groups (e.g., Sakamoto, Wu, & Tzeng, 2000;Wilson, 1978). Chinese and Japanese Americans were frequently noted as the racial groups that achieved the highest levels of economic assimilation and for whom race and ethnicity mattered the least (Chin, 2005;Nee & Sanders, 1985;Sakamoto et al., 2000).As Payne (1989) noted, however, even when structural assimilation, including economic and educational incorporation, takes place, social exclusion in intimate relationships could persist (Tinker, 1982). Marriage markets contain valuable information on the social exclusionary barriers that encourage in-group marriage, perpetuate monoethnic identity (Rosenfeld, 2008), and suppress the well-being of individuals by restricting their access to distinct resources available to each racial and ethnic group (Binning, Unzueta, Huo, & Molina, 2009). Examining racial and ethnic barriers is essential to understanding U.S. marriage markets; even in the recent years, they have been reported as more rigid than religious and educational barriers (Rosenfeld, 2008). Rosenfeld (2008) suggested that, in the mid-1990s, researchers' persistent reliance on an assimilationist framework (e.g., Gordon, 1964) slowed the understanding of how racial barriers could persist or strengthen in the U.S. marriage market.(ono@wsu.edu).. This article was edited by Jay Teachman. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptSocial barriers in the U.S. marriage market were commonly captured by the minority group's level of in-group versus out-group marriage with the majority group, net of the influence of structural characteristics such as spouses' educational status (e.g., Batson, Qian, & Lichter, 2006;Kalmijn, 1998;Qian & Lichter, 2007). Pairing patterns of Japanese Americans with Whites immediately after World War II...

Changing Patterns of Interracial Marriage in a Multiracial Society

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