I suspect that prostitution is always part of war, everyone's wars, just as
civilian casualties are. However, given America's propensity for
commercialization and the fact that it is currently the empire that exists
in the world with 800 military posts, I doubt that other countries are able
to compete with the number of unfortunate commercial enterprises that it has
currently imposed all over the world.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of R. E. Driscoll Sr
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2015 1:59 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: 'My Body Was Not Mine, But the US Military's'
I wonder what types of 'commercial zones' exist around other military bases
of other countries?
On 11/5/2015 12:32 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Vine writes: "Today, commercial sex zones thrive in tandem with many
U.S.
bases around the world, from Baumholder in Germany to Fort Bragg in
North
Carolina. Many look much the same, filled with liquor stores,
fast-food
outlets, tattoo parlors, bars and clubs, and prostitution in one
form or
another."
Many US military bases have a thriving sex industry around them.
(photo: AP)
'My Body Was Not Mine, But the US Military's'
By David Vine, Politico
05 November 15
At night in the Songtan camptown outside Osan Air Base in South
Korea, I
wandered through streets that were getting louder and more crowded
now that
the sun had set. As the night progressed, hip-hop boomed out of bars
along
the main pedestrian mall and from second-floor clubs with neon-lit
names
like Club Woodys, Pleasure World, Whisky a-Go-Go and the Hook Up
Club. Many
of the bars have stages with stripper poles for women to dance to
the flash
of stage lights and blasting music. In other bars, groups of mostly
Filipina
women in tight skirts and dresses talked to one another, leaning
over the
table as they shot pool. Some were chatting with a handful of GIs,
young and
old. Groups of younger GIs walked together through the
red-light-district-meets-pedestrian-mall scene, peering into bars
and
considering their options. Bright signs for cheap hotels beckoned.
Near a
small food cart, a sign read, man only massage prince hotel.
For anyone in the U.S. military, it would have been a familiar
sight. As
long as armies have been fighting each other, and long before women
were
widely seen on the battlefield, female labor has been essential to
the
everyday operation of most militaries. But women havent just washed
the
laundry, cooked the food and nursed injured troops back to health.
Womens
sex work has long been used to help keep male troops happyor at
least happy
enough to keep working for the military. Today, commercial sex zones
thrive
in tandem with many U.S. bases around the world, from Baumholder in
Germany
to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Many look much the same, filled
with liquor
stores, fast-food outlets, tattoo parlors, bars and clubs, and
prostitution
in one form or another.
The problems associated with the sex trade are particularly
pronounced in
South Korea, where camptowns that surround U.S. bases have become
deeply
entrenched in the countrys economy, politics and culture. Dating to
the
1945 U.S. occupation of Korea, when GIs casually bought sex with as
little
as a cigarette, these camptowns have been at the center of an
exploitative
and profoundly disturbing sex industryone that both displays and
reinforces
the militarys attitudes about men, women, power and dominance. In
recent
years, exposés and other investigations have shown just how openly
prostitution has operated around American bases, leading the U.S.
government
to ban solicitation in the military and the South Korean government
to crack
down on the industry. But prostitution has far from disappeared. It
has only
grown more secretive and creative in its subterfuge. If you want to
know
more about whats at the root of the militarys struggles with
sexual abuse,
look no further than Songtan.
As World War II came to a close, U.S. military leaders in Korea,
just like
their counterparts in Germany, worried about the interactions
between
American troops and local women. Americans act as though Koreans
were a
conquered nation rather than a liberated people, wrote the office
of the
commanding general. The policy became hands off Korean womenbut
this did
not include women in brothels, dance halls and those working the
streets.
Instead, with venereal disease and other communicable infections
widespread,
the U.S. military government created a VD Control Section that
instituted
regular inspections and treatment for entertaining girls. This
category
included licensed prostitutes, dancers, bar girls and waitresses.
Between
May 1947 and July 1948, medical personnel examined almost 15,000
women.
U.S. military authorities occupying Korea after the war took over
some of
the comfort stations that had been central to the Japanese war
machine
since the 19th century. During its conquest of territory across East
Asia,
the Japanese military forced hundreds of thousands of women from
Korea,
China, Okinawa and rural Japan, and other parts of Asia into sexual
slavery,
providing soldiers with royal gifts from the emperor. With the
assistance
of Korean officials, U.S. authorities continued the system absent
formal
slavery, but under conditions of exceedingly limited choice for the
women
involved.
The arrangements were further formalized after the 1950 outbreak of
the
Korean War. The municipal authorities have already issued the
approval for
establishing UN comfort stations in return for the Allied Forces
toil,
wrote the Pusan Daily. In a few days, five stations will be set up
in the
downtown areas of new and old Masan. The authorities are asking
citizens to
give much cooperation in coming days.
After the signing of the 1953 Korea-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty
(still the
legal foundation for U.S. troops access to U.S. and Korean bases),
camptowns boomed. In the 1950s alone, 18 new camptowns were created.
As the
political scientist and camptown expert Katherine Moon explains,
they were
virtually colonized space where Korean sovereignty was suspended
and
replaced by the U.S. military authorities. The livelihoods of
Koreans in
the camptowns were almost completely dependent on GIs buying power,
and sex
work was a core part of the camptown economy. The camptowns became
deeply
stigmatized twilight zones known for sex, crime and violence. By
1958,
there were an estimated 300,000 sex workers in a country with an
entire
population of just 22 million. More than half worked in camptowns.
In the
middle of downtown Seoul, where the Army occupied the 640-acre
Yongsan
Garrison originally built by Japanese colonizers, the Itaewon
neighborhood
filled with bars and brothels. GIs named it Hooker Hill.
Cohabitating marriage, resembling European-style colonial
concubinage,
also became popular. Many men have their steadies, commented one
military
chaplain. Some of them own their girls, complete with hooch [small
house]
and furniture. Before leaving Korea, they sell the package to a man
who is
just coming in.
After a military junta seized power in South Korea in a 1961 coup,
Korean
officials created legally recognized special districts for
businesses
catering to U.S. troops and off-limits to Koreans. American military
police
could arrest sex workers without health inspection cards, and U.S.
doctors
treated women with sexually transmitted diseases at detention
centers given
names such as the monkey house. In 1965, 85 percent of GIs
surveyed
reported having been with or been out with a prostitute.
Camptowns and prostitution thus became critical parts of a South
Korean
economy struggling to emerge from the devastation of war. South
Korean
government documents show male officials strategizing to encourage
GIs to
spend their money on women in Korea rather than Japan during leave
time.
Officials offered classes in basic English and etiquette to
encourage women
to sell themselves more effectively and earn more money. They urged
us to
sell as much as possible to the GIs, praising us as dollar-earning
patriots, recounts former sex worker Aeran Kim. Our government
was one
big pimp for the U.S. military.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference
not valid.
Many US military bases have a thriving sex industry around them.
(photo: AP)
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/sex-industry-military-bases-2
13311 -
ixzz3qSasglcnhttp://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/sex-industry-mil
itary-bases-213311 - ixzz3qSasglcn
'My Body Was Not Mine, But the US Military's'
By David Vine, Politico
05 November 15
t night in the Songtan camptown outside Osan Air Base in South
Korea, I
wandered through streets that were getting louder and more crowded
now that
the sun had set. As the night progressed, hip-hop boomed out of bars
along
the main pedestrian mall and from second-floor clubs with neon-lit
names
like Club Woodys, Pleasure World, Whisky a-Go-Go and the Hook Up
Club. Many
of the bars have stages with stripper poles for women to dance to
the flash
of stage lights and blasting music. In other bars, groups of mostly
Filipina
women in tight skirts and dresses talked to one another, leaning
over the
table as they shot pool. Some were chatting with a handful of GIs,
young and
old. Groups of younger GIs walked together through the
red-light-district-meets-pedestrian-mall scene, peering into bars
and
considering their options. Bright signs for cheap hotels beckoned.
Near a
small food cart, a sign read, man only massage prince hotel.
For anyone in the U.S. military, it would have been a familiar
sight. As
long as armies have been fighting each other, and long before women
were
widely seen on the battlefield, female labor has been essential to
the
everyday operation of most militaries. But women havent just washed
the
laundry, cooked the food and nursed injured troops back to health.
Womens
sex work has long been used to help keep male troops happyor at
least happy
enough to keep working for the military. Today, commercial sex zones
thrive
in tandem with many U.S. bases around the world, from Baumholder in
Germany
to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Many look much the same, filled
with liquor
stores, fast-food outlets, tattoo parlors, bars and clubs, and
prostitution
in one form or another.
The problems associated with the sex trade are particularly
pronounced in
South Korea, where camptowns that surround U.S. bases have become
deeply
entrenched in the countrys economy, politics and culture. Dating to
the
1945 U.S. occupation of Korea, when GIs casually bought sex with as
little
as a cigarette, these camptowns have been at the center of an
exploitative
and profoundly disturbing sex industryone that both displays and
reinforces
the militarys attitudes about men, women, power and dominance. In
recent
years, exposés and other investigations have shown just how openly
prostitution has operated around American bases, leading the U.S.
government
to ban solicitation in the military and the South Korean government
to crack
down on the industry. But prostitution has far from disappeared. It
has only
grown more secretive and creative in its subterfuge. If you want to
know
more about whats at the root of the militarys struggles with
sexual abuse,
look no further than Songtan.
As World War II came to a close, U.S. military leaders in Korea,
just like
their counterparts in Germany, worried about the interactions
between
American troops and local women. Americans act as though Koreans
were a
conquered nation rather than a liberated people, wrote the office
of the
commanding general. The policy became hands off Korean womenbut
this did
not include women in brothels, dance halls and those working the
streets.
Instead, with venereal disease and other communicable infections
widespread,
the U.S. military government created a VD Control Section that
instituted
regular inspections and treatment for entertaining girls. This
category
included licensed prostitutes, dancers, bar girls and waitresses.
Between
May 1947 and July 1948, medical personnel examined almost 15,000
women.
U.S. military authorities occupying Korea after the war took over
some of
the comfort stations that had been central to the Japanese war
machine
since the 19th century. During its conquest of territory across East
Asia,
the Japanese military forced hundreds of thousands of women from
Korea,
China, Okinawa and rural Japan, and other parts of Asia into sexual
slavery,
providing soldiers with royal gifts from the emperor. With the
assistance
of Korean officials, U.S. authorities continued the system absent
formal
slavery, but under conditions of exceedingly limited choice for the
women
involved.
The arrangements were further formalized after the 1950 outbreak of
the
Korean War. The municipal authorities have already issued the
approval for
establishing UN comfort stations in return for the Allied Forces
toil,
wrote the Pusan Daily. In a few days, five stations will be set up
in the
downtown areas of new and old Masan. The authorities are asking
citizens to
give much cooperation in coming days.
After the signing of the 1953 Korea-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty
(still the
legal foundation for U.S. troops access to U.S. and Korean bases),
camptowns boomed. In the 1950s alone, 18 new camptowns were created.
As the
political scientist and camptown expert Katherine Moon explains,
they were
virtually colonized space where Korean sovereignty was suspended
and
replaced by the U.S. military authorities. The livelihoods of
Koreans in
the camptowns were almost completely dependent on GIs buying power,
and sex
work was a core part of the camptown economy. The camptowns became
deeply
stigmatized twilight zones known for sex, crime and violence. By
1958,
there were an estimated 300,000 sex workers in a country with an
entire
population of just 22 million. More than half worked in camptowns.
In the
middle of downtown Seoul, where the Army occupied the 640-acre
Yongsan
Garrison originally built by Japanese colonizers, the Itaewon
neighborhood
filled with bars and brothels. GIs named it Hooker Hill.
Cohabitating marriage, resembling European-style colonial
concubinage,
also became popular. Many men have their steadies, commented one
military
chaplain. Some of them own their girls, complete with hooch [small
house]
and furniture. Before leaving Korea, they sell the package to a man
who is
just coming in.
After a military junta seized power in South Korea in a 1961 coup,
Korean
officials created legally recognized special districts for
businesses
catering to U.S. troops and off-limits to Koreans. American military
police
could arrest sex workers without health inspection cards, and U.S.
doctors
treated women with sexually transmitted diseases at detention
centers given
names such as the monkey house. In 1965, 85 percent of GIs
surveyed
reported having been with or been out with a prostitute.
Camptowns and prostitution thus became critical parts of a South
Korean
economy struggling to emerge from the devastation of war. South
Korean
government documents show male officials strategizing to encourage
GIs to
spend their money on women in Korea rather than Japan during leave
time.
Officials offered classes in basic English and etiquette to
encourage women
to sell themselves more effectively and earn more money. They urged
us to
sell as much as possible to the GIs, praising us as dollar-earning
patriots, recounts former sex worker Aeran Kim. Our government
was one
big pimp for the U.S. military.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
________________________________
Avast logo <http://www.avast.com/> This email has been checked for
viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com <http://www.avast.com/>
