Reflections on a Movement - Mark Bautista - James Estillore - Paolo Garcia - Nadia Mohebati

R E F L E C T I N G O N C R Y S T A L M U N ٌ H Y E B A I K ' S " M I L I T A R I Z E D M I G R A T I O N S "

"7E ARE HERE BECA5SE 9O5 7ERE 4HERE"

In "Militarized Migrations", author MunٌHye Baik reveals the social and political realities of the AmericanٌKorean War, and emphasizes the rationalized and genderdized migration of Koreans to the United States. Shortly after WW2, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union arose. Both powerful nations fought a proxy war between the USٌbacked South Korea and the Sovietٌbacked North Korea. Back emphasizes that majority whiteٌAmerican service members and Koreans shared intimacies as early as a few years after WW2. Contact between American service members and Koreans started when 70,000 American troops entered South Korea in September 1945. Some Korean women such as Lee Yong Soon worked as a soٌcalled ٗcommunications supervisor٘ for the U.S. military; others worked as military language teachers and other languageٌrelated positions. This laid the groundwork for Korean and American integration, and eventual sexual exploitation as further explained below. The implications of the Korean War were sanitized through the formal language of global freedom and mobility, individual autonomy, and voluntary immigration. They justified the occupation of sovereign nations by emphasizing the need to save and protect effeminized countries against communism. Most, if not all, of Korean migration since 1950 can be traced to the war and its consequences. State policies at the time reflect how the privileged ledgers of government decisions rendered a selective cohort of Koreans as viable Americans by premising their citizenship on racial, gendered, and sexual differencesThe temporary policies were not so ephemeral or transitory but produced a lasting imprint on permanent immigration legislation, while sustaining the United Statesٚ selfٌcrafted image as the humanitarian leader of the ٗfreeٌ world٘. The shift of the U.S. military presence from shortٌterm to longٌ term occupation had a domino effect on industries surrounding the bases. Temporary living quarters on military bases previously controlled by the Japanese Imperial Army became makeshift living quarters for American soldiers. This led to the hasty building of accomodations, businesses and entertainment venues catering to U.S. soldiers, and these areas were called ٗcamptowns٘. One to highlight were the military brothels for the gathering and leisure of soldiers, which are still present to this day, employed approximately thirty thousand licensed Korean female ٗentertainment٘ workers. Most Korean women who married U.S. soldiers and migrated to the United States were part of the camptown economy in one form or another, but also the mere presence of U.S. military in South Korea created opportunities for social interface between locals and soldiersNearly 84 ڭ of the 14,000 Koreans who entered the U.S. between 1951 and 1964 were spouses of American servicemembers, or Korean/multiracial children who were awaiting adoption.