United States military and prostitution in South Korea
During and following the Korean war, the United States military used regulated prostitution services in South Korean military camptowns. Despite prostitution being illegal since 1948, women in South Korea were the fundamental source of sexual services for the U.S. military and a component of Korean-American relations. The women in South Korea who served as prostitutes are known as kijichon women, also called as "Korean Military Comfort Women", and were visited by the US military, Korean soldiers, and Korean civilians. The prostitutes were from Korea, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Etymology
Prostitutes servicing members of the U.S. military in South Korea have been known locally under a variety of terms. They have been referred to as "bar girls", "special entertainers", "Korean Military Comfort Women", "comfort women", "hostesses", and "business women".Yankee princess also translated as Western princess, were other common names and literal translations for the prostitutes in the Gijichon, U.S. military Camp Towns in South Korea. The term "Western princess" has been commonly used in the press, such as The Dong-a Ilbo for decades. It is also used as a derogatory term when referring to interracial couples, particular those between a white male and Korean female.
Yankee whore and Western whore are also common names. The women are also referred to as U.N. madams.
Until the early 1990s, the term "comfort women" was often used by South Korean media and officials to refer to prostitutes for the U.S. military, and the term "Yankee princess" has been used instead. However, by 2013, some South Korean media were using the term "U.S. comfort women" instead.
The early 1990s also saw the two women's rights movements diverge: on one side the one representing the Cheongsindae, and on the other side the movement representing the Gijichon. Despite many women on both sides being victims of forced labor, those who supported Cheongsidae believed the kijich'on women were willing participants in the system of prostitution and sexually promiscuous.
History
Beginning in 1945, an institutionalized system of prostitution was adopted and permitted by the U.S. military and the Republic of Korea. Despite the United States Forces Korea's policy stating, "Hiring prostitutes is incompatible with our military core values", there is a discrepancy between "practice" and "policy". In Korean society, prostitution is viewed as a "necessary evil". The U.S. military have explained it as military culture that allows for American GIs to blow off steam and prevent homosexual tendencies. Prostitutes for U.S. soldiers were esteemed to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy by South Koreans. They were also the lowest status within the hierarchy of prostitution.U.S. military government rule in South Korea 1945-1948
In September 1945, United States Armed Forces, led by General John R. Hodge, occupied South Korea after Korea's liberation from Japan. This also included Imperial Japanese comfort stations. These events continued the government-sanctioned prostitution that was established in Korea under Japan's rule. The formation of licensed prostitution by Japan established registration protocols and mandatory STD examinations for Korean sex workers. Once the U.S. military occupied Korea, these examinations were conducted by the Bureau of Public Health and Welfare. In order to protect U.S. soldiers from contracting diseases from prostitutes, the service bars and clubs were relocated near and within military bases. By confining the prostitutes to within a small area, the U.S. military had the power to regulate and monitor the women's activities and health. As the U.S. military government tolerated and regulated prostitution, women's organizations argued for the abolishment of prostitution. In response, the United States passed The Abolishment of Public Prostitution Law in 1947. This abolished licensed prostitution; however, the law increased the proliferation of private prostitution.Post Korean war
The aftermath of the Korean war resulted in extreme poverty and chaos. This produced a large influx in prostitutes as women resorted to sex work in order to support themselves and their family members. Prostitution became a regular and enduring feature of military camptowns.Estimates for the number of Korean prostitutes below are variously based on figures from articles of independent writers, venereal disease examinations, and government statistics.
In 1953, the total number of prostitutes throughout the population in South Korea was 350,000 according to one government report. However, according to statistics from the Korean government, the total number of prostitutes in South Korea was 17,349 in 1953. According to the research by professor Lee Young-hoon, an economics professor at Seoul National University, into the number of examinations for venereal disease, he estimated that there were around 10,000 comfort women for the US military in the 1950's to 1960's. This is about one-third of the number of people engaged in the prostitution industry at a specific point in time between 1955 and 1966. Surveys carried out during the 1950s and 1960s suggest that 60% of these prostitutes worked near U.S. military camps, but although these prostitutes worked near U.S. military camps, many of them served only Korean men. A 1984 report suggested that the number of prostitutes around U.S. bases had dropped to less than a third of the total number of prostitutes in the country.
The average age of Korean prostitute for American soldiers is 27 years old while for Korean soldiers it is 21 years old. The average Korean prostitutes work for several years, others work 5 to 10 years. The average Korean prostitute length of service is 2.5 years for Korean soldiers while for American soldiers the average length is 3 years. The average number of instances of sexual intercourse per day was 1.7 times with the U.S. military, which was significantly less than those for Koreans. However, the average monthly income per Korean prostitute was 11,423 won with U.S. military, more than three times that with Koreans. At the time, the average monthly wage for manufacturing workers was 3,800 won for males, and about 2,500 won for females.
An estimate from a writer claimed the number of prostitutes was probably proportional to the number of U.S. soldiers. The number of U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea stood at 326,863 in 1953; 225,590 in 1954; 75,328 in 1955; 55,864 in 1960; 45,000 in the 1970s and 42,000 in the 1980s. Many of the Korean prostitutes that worked in 1953 would leave within a year, while others continued to work for several more years. As the number of U.S. soldiers decreased after 1953, so did the number of Korean prostitutes.
In 1954, Korean government figures give a total of 10,000–30,000 prostitutes servicing the UN/U.S. military in the South Korea, about 20,000 prostitutes in 1966, reducing to 13,000-14,000 in 1969, then reducing further to 9,935 in 1977.
The Second Republic viewed prostitution as something of a necessity. Starting in the 1960s, an official organized system was established to provide the U.S. military men with entertainment and leisure that fulfilled their sexual fantasies, such as peep shows and strip clubs. Lawmakers of the National Assembly urged the South Korean government to train a supply of prostitutes for allied soldiers to prevent them from spending their dollars in Japan. Lee Seung-u, the deputy, gave a response to the National Assembly that the government had made some improvements in the "Supply of Prostitutes" for American soldiers. These camptowns existed as a site for the American GIs R&R. File:Park Chung-hee, 1961-August-21.jpg|thumb|Park Chung-hee shakes hands with General Guy S. Meloy after the May 16 coup. Park helped to enforce the "Base Community Clean-Up Campaign".
Park seized power in the May 16 coup, and immediately enforced two core laws. The first was the prostitution prevention law, which excluded "camp towns" from the governmental crackdown on prostitution; the second was the tourism promotion law, which designated camp towns as special tourism districts.
During the 1960s, prostitution and other related businesses generated nearly 25% of the South Korean GNP. In 1962, 20,000 comfort women were registered. The prostitutes attended classes sponsored by their government in English and etiquette to help them sell more effectively. They were praised as "dollar-earning patriots" or "true patriots" by the South Korean government. In the 1970s one junior high school teacher told his students that "The prostitutes who sell their bodies to the U.S. military are true patriots. Their dollars earned greatly contributes to our national economy. Don't talk behind their back that they are western princesses or U.N. madams."
In 1971, the number of American soldiers was reduced by 18,000 due to the Nixon Doctrine. Because of this, South Koreans were more afraid of the North Korean threat and its economic impact. Even so, camp town prostitution had already become an important component of South Korean livelihood. The advocacy group My Sister's Place wrote in 1991 that the American soldiers contributed one billion dollars to the South Korean economy. This was 1% of the South Korean GNP.