A Brutal Sex Trade Built for American Soldiers | Hacker News Reader

A Brutal Sex Trade Built for American Soldiers

nytimes.com

92 pointskaraokeyoga38 comments

The same thing happened in France when American GIs were stationed there during WWII. I'd recommend "What Soldiers Do" by Mary Louise Roberts if you're interested in the details.

"It’s a long-buried part of South Korean history" This is factually wrong. The geopolitical driven sex trade is a big issue in common Korean discourse (e.g. newspapers, social media, politics, etc). I would say that it and the historical victimhood native are overemphasized in Korean society. They are a strong country now, no need to ruminate in the past.

It's only long-buried to Americans. I barely follow South Korean discourse, but I've talked about this with my Korean friends on multiple occassions. It's also not a mystery for Okinawans who regularly protest about American soldiers raping Okinawan women.

Nor is it a mystery why Phuket and Bangkok have a giant sex industry now. That sex industry got a huge boost from American soldiers during Vietnam. There was obviously prostitution in Thailand before the Vietnam War, but I've read at least two historical accounts about Thailand during the Vietnam War and they both talked about the influence of American GIs on the sex trade there.

Hell. Contemporary Italian historians talk openly about American GIs raping Italian women in WWII. There is no mystery in any of this for the locals. It's just contemporary Americans that are ignorant.

The West German government created a report on the incidence of rape by occupying powers.

Investigators did massive interviews, surveys, etc.

The numbers for non-Soviet troops were low enough one could claim the rapes would have occurred regardless of whether the war happened.

An American soldier could be executed for raping a German woman. However, it was 100% legal for him to rape his wife.

By separating them from the one woman they were allowed to rape, and surrounding them with women they were strongly forbidden from raping, the war might very well have decreased it.

They were not raping women. They were bringing democracy. /s

I don't think anyone educated on the topic really denies it. Rape is a relatively common human phenomenon, especially in Wartime.

The parent post made a claim about the emphasis and relevance.

Re haga:

I think there's an important line between expecting something and condoning it. Rape is a predictable result of War for many of the reasons you mentioned, and should be understood as such. To do otherwise would be hiding from reality.

However, that doesn't make it a good thing. It is something to be mitigated to the extent possible in the context of other objectives. Referring to complaints as yapping simply minimizes another aspect of the hell that is Warfare.

Now do one about the South Korean sex trade in Silicon Valley.

> Now do one about the South Korean sex trade in Silicon Valley.

I'm totally out of the loop on this one. What's the backstory?

I don't think there's that much backstory to it. Likely just a reference to the large number of thinly veiled sex work that goes on in most cities that people turn a blind eye too. Is easy to comment on something that happened 80 years ago where most of the individuals are dead. Talking about sex work that goes on today in your own city hits a lot closer to home.

Few people want to talk about how the prohibition on sex work in the US pushes it into the black market and contributes to sexual slavery, human trafficking, and abuse.

> her voice quavered recalling women who killed themselves after G.I.s who had taken them as common-law wives subsequently abandoned them and their children.

That would explain a lot if the same thing was occurring there

but, info?

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