The Origins of the US Army’s Korean Comfort Women (3)

Abstract

Abstract: The Origins of the US Army's Korean Comfort Women
Chapter 2 From Rape to Prostitution

When the US Army came to the village there was an explosion of sexual violence, and when prostitutes flocked to the village, they became the saviors of the village.
Sexual violence and prostitution do exist outside of war. These things continued after the war ended and prostitution still exists in South Korea today, so much so that the country has even been called a "prostitution paradise". According to a report by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Women's Development Institute, "There are one million women engaged in prostitution" in South Korea.
Given the situation in Korea, the author writes that neither he nor the many other scholars who had done field surveys throughout South Korea had ever heard of the so-called "comfort women". And yet, the issue found its way into Japanese-language media and then became a political problem and human rights issue within South Korea.
In other words, the “comfort women problem” was made in Japan.
The US Army's comfort women spread throughout the country and became part of the official policy of both the United States and South Korea. These comfort women were deemed by the Park Chung-hee government to be patriots who were ensuring the safety of the Korean Peninsula by satisfying the sexual urges of American servicemen. They were treasured by the Korean government because of their role as earners of foreign currency.