Joanne Elbinger Higashi recalls the hardships of being newly married to a Japanese in the wilds of Mie Prefecture 20 years ago with a wry smile. "Returning here after visiting the States to show my 8-month-old son to my parents, it rained for weeks on end. It was a nightmare trying to get the diapers to dry in time."
How things have changed.
Joanne became the newly elected president of the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese on April 1. It was founded in 1969 by Joan Itoh (now Burk), who having spotted another foreign woman with biracial children and realizing she was not alone, wrote a letter to this paper from Niigata. She then helped organize a lunch for wives such as herself at the Tokyo American Club, thinking there might be a handful. Fifty turned up.