How do you refer to a US-born American of European descent?
The context is that someone is describing a woman who's since become a Japanese citizen, so it's relevant to mention it so people don't think the woman is of Japanese descent.
The person describing the woman used the term "European American". I don't hear the term very often compared to "African-American", so I was unsure if it's the most normal term to use.
Doing a Google search for "European American" gave me a hit for Wikipedia, which probably isn't suitable as it tends to use an academic tone. Urban Dictionary was another hit, but it had a variety of opinions, which probably was the result of the contributors' political leanings rather than an unbiased description. There was also a hit for a white supremacist site, and a couple of sites unrelated to the term, referring to relations between the USA and Europe.
I have a suspicion that some people not only regard people of European descent as the most common group, but the "default" group, such that you only need to mention a person's ethnicity if they're not of European descent. If so, it would explain why I haven't heard the term "European American" much.
What term, if any, should be used in American English in the context of an ordinary non-academic diary entry?