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Amerasian Children in GI Town: A Legacy of U.S. Militarism in South Korea(1)
Abstract
This paper looks at the effects of the U.S. military presence in South Korea, specifically, prostitution in communities around the military bases, on Amerasian children and their Korean mothers. The data were gathered from a series of interviews with both groups of people, feminist activists addressing the problem of U. S. militarism in South Korea, and social service providers working with Amerasian children. It is argued that the issues discussed in this paper need to be seen in terms of the U.S. military as an institution, the militarized masculinity which it generates, and women's socio-economic position. Using the analytical lenses of gender, race, class, and nation, a call is made for activist scholarship by feminists to address this problem.
Introduction
The existence of prostitution in communities surrounding U.S. bases and installations in Asia, and its effects on women, have been well documented in the recent writings of U.S. and Asian feminist writers (Awn, 1995; Barry, 1995; Enloe, 1983, 1990; Moon, 1997; Sturdevant & Stoltzfus, 1992; Yu, 1996). What has not been discussed in great detail is the experience of the mixed-race children of U.S. military personnel and Asian "bar-women," a term used by some South Korean sex workers to refer to themselves.
The people of Asian and U.S. ancestry -often referred to as "Amerasian" -currently living in South Korea can be grouped into three categories, based primarily on socio-economic class, family structure, and generation. One group consists of offspring of middle- and upper-middle-class parents, children of the kukche ky...rhon y...s...ng or "internationally married women" (Yoo, 1993: 36). They are the most economically well-off and socially privileged because they live with both parents, one or both of whom are professionals, such as university professors or diplomats. Another group consists of children of inter-racial military families, with U.S. fathers and Korean mothers (who may or may not have been bar-women), living on and around the U.S. bases. These two cohorts are not often in the public eye. Koreans, however, often presume that all Amerasians are fathered and left behind by GIs. These, however, constitute the third group, the subjects of this paper, the children born in unions between GIs and Korean bar-women,...