U.S. Militarism and the Asian Diaspora
Esmé Lee-Gardner
U.S. militarization is characterized by ideologies that perpetuate violence and economic inequity through objectification and dehumanization. In Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Hawai’i, and Cambodia, militarism has increased poverty among women as well as forms of sex work condoned by military and government institutions.[1]
For U.S. servicemen, militarization and its association with sex work influences how they view Asian women. Often, soldiers’ first experience interacting with local women presents these women as commodified sex, which shapes how they view women of color in other settings as well. This can work to uphold stereotypes still used against Asian women, such as assumptions that Asian women are “sexual enthusiasts,”[2] and continues to make them targets for sexual objectification.
U.S. Military Camps and Transnational Marriage
In Okinawa, Japan, when U.S. military personnel wish to marry a local Okinawan woman, they are required to go through a lengthy procedure known as the Marriage Package, consisting of many documents and a “premarital seminar.”[3] This seminar perpetuates heteronormative, colonial ideas about an ideal military family and upholds an agenda of unequal power relations between the soldiers and the local Okinawans. These marriage processes contribute to an attitude of entitlement and superiority for the U.S. servicemen. For example, while language barriers are often an issue, the burden on learning English is placed on the Okinawan spouses. The U.S. military does not seem to teach or advocate for cultural awareness of the surrounding country and people who live there, which in turn perpetuates a feeling of “us vs. them.”[4]
While individual military servicemen may not have consciously racist or sexist attitudes toward their spouses, the military institution—and specifically premarital seminars—reinforce social and economic inequalities and present them as natural gender and cultural differences.
U.S. “Camp towns” and the Militarization of Sexual Exploitation in South Korea
With the arrival of the U.S. military in Korea and the pop up of camptowns (temporary U.S. military camps), also came the militarization and commercialization of sex work, which was condoned and reinforced by both U.S. and Korean governments. Sometimes referred to using the term “desire industries,” local women and U.S. male soldiers’ interactions experience unequal power relations, accentuated by economic disparities, cultural and language differences, and violence.
Some women who work in the Korean camptowns marry U.S. military personnel, which can be seen as a solution to leading a “normal life” as a woman and mother, and some even immigrate to the U.S as “military brides.” However, they are often viewed as traitors and face stigma and discrimination from Koreans living in Korea, as well as second-generation Koreans in the U.S.[5]. These military brides are simultaneously praised for their sacrifice to their nation, defamed for their “immoral” actions, and pitied for what some view as their victimization at the hands of U.S. imperialism.
However, many camptown women don’t marry the soldiers who purchase their sexual services and are instead abandoned by the soldier if they become pregnant. In these cases, their children are born into a society where they find no sense of belonging. Camptown women are often removed from their family registries, and they and their children are treated as non-citizens.[6] The children face extreme stigma and with no legal Korean citizenship, are in effect left stateless.
Despite the fact that not all Korean women engaged in relationships with U.S. military personnel are sex workers, and not all biracial Korean children are resulting from such relationships, they are still stigmatized and viewed as reminders of U.S. intervention. Due to the strong association between U.S. military presence and sex work, many people incorrectly presume that a transnational relationship or biracial child is the outcome of such association. As such, many Korean camptown women and their biracial children are seen as both physical reminders of the instability of war and of a dependency on America. Mixed-race Korean children are viewed as the embodiment of political and cultural tensions relating to wartime sex work and unwanted military presence, whether their mothers even engaged in sex work or not.[7]
[1] Duncan, Patti, and Cynthia Enloe. “Genealogies of Unbelonging: Amerasians and Transnational Adoptees as Legacies of U.S. Militarism in South Korea.” Militarized Currents: Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific, pp. 277–308.
[2] Spickard, Paul, et al. “What Must I Be?: Asian Americans and the Question of Multiethnic Identity.” Race in Mind: Critical Essays, University of Notre Dame Press, 2016, pp. 177–209.
[3] Forgash, Rebecca. “Negotiating Marriage: Cultural Citizenship and the Reproduction of American Empire in Okinawa.” Ethnology, vol. 48, no. 3, 2009, pp. 215–37.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Duncan, Patti, and Enloe, Genealogies of Unbelonging, pp. 284–285.
[6] See note 1 above
[7] See note 1 above
Esmé Lee-Gardner
U.S. militarization is characterized by ideologies that perpetuate violence and economic inequity through objectification and dehumanization. In Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Hawai’i, and Cambodia, militarism has increased poverty among women as well as forms of sex work condoned by military and government institutions.[1]
For U.S. servicemen, militarization and its association with sex work influences how they view Asian women. Often, soldiers’ first experience interacting with local women presents these women as commodified sex, which shapes how they view women of color in other settings as well. This can work to uphold stereotypes still used against Asian women, such as assumptions that Asian women are “sexual enthusiasts,”[2] and continues to make them targets for sexual objectification.
U.S. Military Camps and Transnational Marriage
In Okinawa, Japan, when U.S. military personnel wish to marry a local Okinawan woman, they are required to go through a lengthy procedure known as the Marriage Package, consisting of many documents and a “premarital seminar.”[3] This seminar perpetuates heteronormative, colonial ideas about an ideal military family and upholds an agenda of unequal power relations between the soldiers and the local Okinawans. These marriage processes contribute to an attitude of entitlement and superiority for the U.S. servicemen. For example, while language barriers are often an issue, the burden on learning English is placed on the Okinawan spouses. The U.S. military does not seem to teach or advocate for cultural awareness of the surrounding country and people who live there, which in turn perpetuates a feeling of “us vs. them.”[4]
While individual military servicemen may not have consciously racist or sexist attitudes toward their spouses, the military institution—and specifically premarital seminars—reinforce social and economic inequalities and present them as natural gender and cultural differences.
U.S. “Camp towns” and the Militarization of Sexual Exploitation in South Korea
With the arrival of the U.S. military in Korea and the pop up of camptowns (temporary U.S. military camps), also came the militarization and commercialization of sex work, which was condoned and reinforced by both U.S. and Korean governments. Sometimes referred to using the term “desire industries,” local women and U.S. male soldiers’ interactions experience unequal power relations, accentuated by economic disparities, cultural and language differences, and violence.
Some women who work in the Korean camptowns marry U.S. military personnel, which can be seen as a solution to leading a “normal life” as a woman and mother, and some even immigrate to the U.S as “military brides.” However, they are often viewed as traitors and face stigma and discrimination from Koreans living in Korea, as well as second-generation Koreans in the U.S.[5]. These military brides are simultaneously praised for their sacrifice to their nation, defamed for their “immoral” actions, and pitied for what some view as their victimization at the hands of U.S. imperialism.
However, many camptown women don’t marry the soldiers who purchase their sexual services and are instead abandoned by the soldier if they become pregnant. In these cases, their children are born into a society where they find no sense of belonging. Camptown women are often removed from their family registries, and they and their children are treated as non-citizens.[6] The children face extreme stigma and with no legal Korean citizenship, are in effect left stateless.
Despite the fact that not all Korean women engaged in relationships with U.S. military personnel are sex workers, and not all biracial Korean children are resulting from such relationships, they are still stigmatized and viewed as reminders of U.S. intervention. Due to the strong association between U.S. military presence and sex work, many people incorrectly presume that a transnational relationship or biracial child is the outcome of such association. As such, many Korean camptown women and their biracial children are seen as both physical reminders of the instability of war and of a dependency on America. Mixed-race Korean children are viewed as the embodiment of political and cultural tensions relating to wartime sex work and unwanted military presence, whether their mothers even engaged in sex work or not.[7]
[1] Duncan, Patti, and Cynthia Enloe. “Genealogies of Unbelonging: Amerasians and Transnational Adoptees as Legacies of U.S. Militarism in South Korea.” Militarized Currents: Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific, pp. 277–308.
[2] Spickard, Paul, et al. “What Must I Be?: Asian Americans and the Question of Multiethnic Identity.” Race in Mind: Critical Essays, University of Notre Dame Press, 2016, pp. 177–209.
[3] Forgash, Rebecca. “Negotiating Marriage: Cultural Citizenship and the Reproduction of American Empire in Okinawa.” Ethnology, vol. 48, no. 3, 2009, pp. 215–37.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Duncan, Patti, and Enloe, Genealogies of Unbelonging, pp. 284–285.
[6] See note 1 above
[7] See note 1 above
Image credit: ESJF
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