The construction of military prostitution in South Korea during the US military rule, 1945-1948

Abstract

The presence of U.S. troops contributed 25 percent of South Korea's GNP, playing an especially important role during the 1960s, and prostitution and related business supported over half of the U.S. camptowns' economy.5 The Korean government has demarcated these spaces as open only to U.S. military personnel and foreign tourists; the two largest gijichon, Dongducheon and Pyeongtaek, were designated as Special Tourism Districts in 1997.6 Women working in the entertainment industry of these areas must be registered and are subject to regular examinations for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Rita Brock and Susan Thistlethwaite indicate that the sex trade in the vicinity of military bases is ubiquitous; indeed, camp followers have customarily accompanied European armies since at least the seventeenth century.7 Britain maintained a system of regulated prostitution in its colonies, including Bombay, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, after domestic prostitution was abolished in 1886, and women serving British soldiers were required to undergo regular examinations designed to detect STDs.8 Since World War II, the large-scale sale of women's sexual labor to U.S. soldiers has aroused public outrage in Okinawa, the Philippines, and Thailand.9 Feminist scholarship has analyzed not only the control of military prostitution by states, occupying armies, and colonial regimes but also the connections among militarism, sexuality, nationalism, and colonialism as interlocking forces that construct and maintain military prostitution.10 However, the process through which U.S. camptown prostitution became entrenched in South Korea remains unexplored.