History of Asian Americans - Brittany Le - Christine Sivilay - Mollie Frager

H OW AM E R I C A E R A S E D T H E M E MO R Y O F T H E K O R E A N WA R

I n rea l i t y , Amer i ca has never admi t ted be i ng i n Korea for war , and no other sens i b l e reasons have ever been brought up. Even when a young so l d i er ar r i ved i n Amer i ca wi th a Korean wi fe , a backs tor y i s i nvented to cover up the fact that she might be a war sur v i vor . No one ta l ks about Yong Soon ' s ( the wi fe) l i fe back i n Korea but how she has adapted to the Amer i can cu l ture and l i fes t y l e. To fur ther erase any mi l i tar y presence i n Korea, Amer i ca opened up i t s border s for Korean immigrant s who were cr y i ng out for j us t i ce for the impact the war had on them. The so l ut i on to keep i ng them qu i et was to a l l ow them i nto the count r y and be a l l owed to be c i t i zens by a l egi s l at i ve order passed by the government . To make th i s be l i evab l e , were the Koreans a l l owed i nto the count r y and other war refugees f rom the non-wes tern count r y .Moreover , Amer i ca washed away the Korean war wi th beaut i fu l ta l ks of f reedom and vo l untar y immigrat i on to the US. Mi l i tar y migrat i ons were used as a cover to encourage the l i a i son between the Amer i can so l d i er s and Korean women . Th i s way , the Korean women were sexua l i zed, rac i a l i zed, and the i r gender exp l o i ted to mask any under l y i ng i ssues the Koreans may have exper i enced dur i ng the war . The women were a l l owed i nto Amer i ca i f they agree to adopt ever y th i ng that def i nes an Amer i can . Fur thermore , the US s i l enced ( though not a l l ) rac i a l v i o l ence cr i t i c i sms by a l l owi ng the i r supposed human i tar i an sp i r i t by tak i ng i n the mi nor i t i es . I n the i nter im, the US ma i nta i ned that the i r mi l i tar y presence i n Korea was to s tem out Commun i sm and keep the peace. The RRA s tated, " f r i end l y i nternat i ona l re l at i ons engendered by Amer i ca ' s he l p i ng hand s t retched out to these ch i l dren , a forward s tep to i nternat i ona l under s tand i ng and l as t i ng peace ' .