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Focuses on racial integration and cultural pluralism of the 1950 Japanese war brides in the United States. History of the US racial diversity; Image and role of Japanese war brides in society; Legislation on the assimilation of war brides; Impact of the narrative `Sayonara,' by James Michener on the social status of Japanese war brides.

The article presents a conversation on critical and pedagogical interventions in the teaching ethnic autobiographies in the U.S. at the American Studies Association national meeting in November 1995 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was produced by an exciting new medium, the electronic conversation. The issue was first discussed by the participants in standard panel form. The ideas of the five authors are presented in a fluid and interactive form, creating a braided conversation that seems especially suited to the multiplicity of the topic and to the second innovation of this issue: a special section of art, poetry and fiction devoted to the topic of hair. The five scholars of ethnic literature — Shelli B. Fowler, Tiffany Ana López, Kate Shanley, Caroline Chung Simpson and Traise Yamamoto — engage in a frank discussion of the personal and pedagogical issues they encounter in teaching ethnic autobiographies. The collective conversation that follows does not attempt to offer definitive answers to the complex issues of appropriate reading strategies and pedagogy for the diverse genre of ethnic autobiographies.