Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Military and sexual desire


As I continue to read this book on Korean orphans, the chapter is entitled Gender and the Militaristic Gaze."  Pate goes into some assumptions that the pictures and newsreels from the military occupation of Korea are filled with sexual desire of the military men and the rejection of the orphans of being invaded. Limiting the support of American soldiers to a sexual or desire of gender could be part of the picture. I hold the view that Americans are compassionate and wanted to help the orphans. Pate did mention once that that is part of being an American so the author tends to go in circles. Both the Japanese and American Armies had the prostitution camps nearby the bases. The Japanese left the orphans up to the Koreans to care for during WWII. The Americans came to rebuild after the Korean War and felt a compassion to help the Korean orphans. The question would be: What would have happened had the US Army not intervened on behalf of the orphans.

Pate, S. (2014). From orphan to adoptee. U.S. empire and genealogies of Korean adoption. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press

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