Occupying Power
Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan
Seiten
2012
Stanford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8047-7691-2 (ISBN)
Stanford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8047-7691-2 (ISBN)
Ordinary women helped restart Japan's postwar recovery by selling sex to Allied servicemen, but they were sacrificed as symbols of national shame by a country that has yet to recover full sovereignty.
The year was 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops poured into war-torn Japan and spread throughout the country. The effect of this influx on the local population did not lessen in the years following the war's end. In fact, the presence of foreign servicemen also heightened the visibility of certain others, particularly panpan—streetwalkers—who were objects of their desire.
Occupying Power shows how intimate histories and international relations are interconnected in ways scholars have only begun to explore. Sex workers who catered to servicemen were integral to the postwar economic recovery, yet they were nonetheless blamed for increases in venereal disease and charged with diluting the Japanese race by producing mixed-race offspring. In 1956, Japan passed its first national law against prostitution, which produced an unanticipated effect. By ending a centuries-old tradition of sex work regulation, it made sex workers less visible and more vulnerable. This probing history reveals an important but underexplored aspect of the Japanese occupation and its effect on gender and society. It shifts the terms of debate on a number of controversies, including Japan's history of forced sexual slavery, rape accusations against U.S. servicemen, opposition to U.S. overseas bases, and sexual trafficking.
The year was 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops poured into war-torn Japan and spread throughout the country. The effect of this influx on the local population did not lessen in the years following the war's end. In fact, the presence of foreign servicemen also heightened the visibility of certain others, particularly panpan—streetwalkers—who were objects of their desire.
Occupying Power shows how intimate histories and international relations are interconnected in ways scholars have only begun to explore. Sex workers who catered to servicemen were integral to the postwar economic recovery, yet they were nonetheless blamed for increases in venereal disease and charged with diluting the Japanese race by producing mixed-race offspring. In 1956, Japan passed its first national law against prostitution, which produced an unanticipated effect. By ending a centuries-old tradition of sex work regulation, it made sex workers less visible and more vulnerable. This probing history reveals an important but underexplored aspect of the Japanese occupation and its effect on gender and society. It shifts the terms of debate on a number of controversies, including Japan's history of forced sexual slavery, rape accusations against U.S. servicemen, opposition to U.S. overseas bases, and sexual trafficking.
Sarah Kovner is Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at the University of Florida.
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 8.2.2012 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University |
| Zusatzinfo | 2 tables, 1 figure, 12 illustrations, 1 map |
| Verlagsort | Palo Alto |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Gewicht | 454 g |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Zeitgeschichte |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Sexualität / Partnerschaft | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-8047-7691-1 / 0804776911 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-8047-7691-2 / 9780804776912 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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