Impacts on Women and Girls in Conflict
Impacts of U.S. Militarism on Women and Girls in Armed Conflict and South Korea
Some in America may believe the country is disconnected from the issue of women in armed conflict, since no war has taken place on U.S. soil for more than 150 years. However, U.S. military involvement overseas triggers and aggravates the violence women and girls face in armed conflict, both actual and potential.
Since WWII, under the claimed goal of “maintaining security,” the U.S. has created more than 170 U.S. military foreign installations. In host countries, the U.S. has shown a strong tendency to prioritizing militarism and political interests over human rights, especially those of women and girls. Sexual assault and harassment within the U.S. military remains a persistent problem. This problem is compounded when considering foreign installations, where extraterritoriality jurisdiction applies under Status of Forces Agreements, or SOFAs. These agreements often allow the U.S. to retain exclusive jurisdiction over its service members in many countries, including the ROK and Japan. U.S. military personnel overseas face lighter or sometime no punishment for an array of human rights violations, including sexual violence committed in host countries.
In South Korea, where the third biggest U.S. military bases are installed overseas and which hosts the U.S. military’s largest overseas installation at Camp Humphreys, sexual exploitation at so-called “camptowns” or Gijichon (기지촌) is widespread and ongoing.[2] Official documents indicate that during and after the Korean War, the U.S. government specifically requested Korean “comfort women” who could provide “sexual services” to U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea. The term “comfort women” is a euphemism for women and girls who were forced into Japan’s wartime military sexual slavery system from the 1930s until the end of WWII. Since the outbreak of the Korean War, during the initial years of the South Korean international adoption program, a large percentage of children adopted from South Korea were of mixed race because of the coordinated military sex trade in the Gijichon that developed around U.S. military bases. U.S. military presence in South Korea, designed to keep the “peace and security” of the host country, has ironically threatened the peace and security of women and children, especially those who live near military installations. Examples include 13-year-old students Hyo-Sun and Mi-Seon,[3] as well as a 26-year-old waitress at an army base in Dongducheon city, Yun Geum-I — just three of the many victims affected by U.S. militarism overseas and unjustly handled cases of U.S. military sexual violence in South Korea. Some victims cannot be identified. In Sangpaedong, Dongducheon, near another U.S. military base, Camp Casey, there is a big graveyard with numerous unidentified victims’ graves, including newborns. It’s said that sometimes two or three people were buried together.[4] Near the Sangpaedong cemetery, the last STD medical treatment facility built to lock up Gijichon women thought to be ill still stands. Along with the cemetery, the last STD medical treatment facility is at risk of removal due to a “city revitalization project.”[5] Additional problems associated with U.S. overseas military bases include systematic environmental pollution, such as the disposal of toxic waste into soil and water.
U.S. foreign policy based on militarism has caused various forms of violence, human rights violations, and conflict extension overseas, disproportionately impacting women and children. Resolving the problems and issues associated with women in armed conflict can also help resolve gender violence at home. To do so, it is critical that the U.S. adopt a feminist foreign policy. The U.S., the leading country in the world, can interrupt the current suppressive trends and provide an accountable societal structure for women and girls to live in peace and security. Along with the U.S. government’s adoption of a feminist foreign policy, the government’s collaboration with civil society, women’s active participation in decision-making for a peaceful society, and peace education for children must happen simultaneously to establish sustainable change. People, especially women and children, deserve no less than the end of a repeated pattern of decades with more promises than progress in peace-making and genuine security.
Click the button below to learn more about the unpunished murders of Hyo-Sun and Mi-Seon, the case of Yun Geum-I, and the significance of the U.S. adopting a feminist foreign policy.
[2] “[Interview] Fighting for Reparations for Korea’s Camptown Women Before It’s Too Late,” Hankyoreh, June 26, 2022.
[3]최예지, 안치용, and 신다임, “대한민국을 촛불로 물들인 14세 소녀들의 죽음,” March 16, 2021, Le Monde Diplomatique, https://www.ilemonde.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=14266
[4] 임성용, “2~3명세워 같이 묻은 무덤…잊지말아야할 이유,” May 18, 2024, Oh My News, https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0003030198&CMPT_CD=P0010&utm_source=naver&utm_medium=newsearch&utm_campaign=naver_news.
[5] Ibid.
Submitted by Sung Sohn
Some in America may believe the country is disconnected from the issue of women in armed conflict, since no war has taken place on U.S. soil for more than 150 years. However, U.S. military involvement overseas triggers and aggravates the violence women and girls face in armed conflict, both actual and potential.
Since WWII, under the claimed goal of “maintaining security,” the U.S. has created more than 170 U.S. military foreign installations. In host countries, the U.S. has shown a strong tendency to prioritizing militarism and political interests over human rights, especially those of women and girls. Sexual assault and harassment within the U.S. military remains a persistent problem. This problem is compounded when considering foreign installations, where extraterritoriality jurisdiction applies under Status of Forces Agreements, or SOFAs. These agreements often allow the U.S. to retain exclusive jurisdiction over its service members in many countries, including the ROK and Japan. U.S. military personnel overseas face lighter or sometime no punishment for an array of human rights violations, including sexual violence committed in host countries.
In South Korea, where the third biggest U.S. military bases are installed overseas and which hosts the U.S. military’s largest overseas installation at Camp Humphreys, sexual exploitation at so-called “camptowns” or Gijichon (기지촌) is widespread and ongoing.[2] Official documents indicate that during and after the Korean War, the U.S. government specifically requested Korean “comfort women” who could provide “sexual services” to U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea. The term “comfort women” is a euphemism for women and girls who were forced into Japan’s wartime military sexual slavery system from the 1930s until the end of WWII. Since the outbreak of the Korean War, during the initial years of the South Korean international adoption program, a large percentage of children adopted from South Korea were of mixed race because of the coordinated military sex trade in the Gijichon that developed around U.S. military bases. U.S. military presence in South Korea, designed to keep the “peace and security” of the host country, has ironically threatened the peace and security of women and children, especially those who live near military installations. Examples include 13-year-old students Hyo-Sun and Mi-Seon,[3] as well as a 26-year-old waitress at an army base in Dongducheon city, Yun Geum-I — just three of the many victims affected by U.S. militarism overseas and unjustly handled cases of U.S. military sexual violence in South Korea. Some victims cannot be identified. In Sangpaedong, Dongducheon, near another U.S. military base, Camp Casey, there is a big graveyard with numerous unidentified victims’ graves, including newborns. It’s said that sometimes two or three people were buried together.[4] Near the Sangpaedong cemetery, the last STD medical treatment facility built to lock up Gijichon women thought to be ill still stands. Along with the cemetery, the last STD medical treatment facility is at risk of removal due to a “city revitalization project.”[5] Additional problems associated with U.S. overseas military bases include systematic environmental pollution, such as the disposal of toxic waste into soil and water.
U.S. foreign policy based on militarism has caused various forms of violence, human rights violations, and conflict extension overseas, disproportionately impacting women and children. Resolving the problems and issues associated with women in armed conflict can also help resolve gender violence at home. To do so, it is critical that the U.S. adopt a feminist foreign policy. The U.S., the leading country in the world, can interrupt the current suppressive trends and provide an accountable societal structure for women and girls to live in peace and security. Along with the U.S. government’s adoption of a feminist foreign policy, the government’s collaboration with civil society, women’s active participation in decision-making for a peaceful society, and peace education for children must happen simultaneously to establish sustainable change. People, especially women and children, deserve no less than the end of a repeated pattern of decades with more promises than progress in peace-making and genuine security.
Click the button below to learn more about the unpunished murders of Hyo-Sun and Mi-Seon, the case of Yun Geum-I, and the significance of the U.S. adopting a feminist foreign policy.
[2] “[Interview] Fighting for Reparations for Korea’s Camptown Women Before It’s Too Late,” Hankyoreh, June 26, 2022.
[3]최예지, 안치용, and 신다임, “대한민국을 촛불로 물들인 14세 소녀들의 죽음,” March 16, 2021, Le Monde Diplomatique, https://www.ilemonde.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=14266
[4] 임성용, “2~3명세워 같이 묻은 무덤…잊지말아야할 이유,” May 18, 2024, Oh My News, https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0003030198&CMPT_CD=P0010&utm_source=naver&utm_medium=newsearch&utm_campaign=naver_news.
[5] Ibid.
Submitted by Sung Sohn
