Operation Relax: Empires of Sex in Japan, South Korea, and the Asia-Pacific (1945-1995)

Abstract

This dissertation stiches together the imperial landscapes of managed sex and violence in the Asia-Pacific against the backdrop of global wars. “Operation Relax” examines the building of sexual infrastructures for the establishment of the US military program Rest and Recuperation (R&R) in Japan starting in 1950, the revival of “comfort stations” for UN and ROK troops in South Korea, and the development of military-sexual complexes throughout the Asia-Pacific in the wake of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. It argues that Asian women’s sexual labor and the medical regulation of their bodies as sexual “breakwaters” were central for rebuilding economies, securing diplomatic relations, and sustaining military morale for troops. In other words, America’s postwar sexual recreation was at its core a public health enterprise that wielded the regimentation of sex work at the intersection of medicine, social hygiene, and psychiatry. Through US collaboration with Japanese and South Korean governments, these public health measures—at the expense of women’s civil liberties—also served to optimize the efficiency of fighting soldiers. By incorporating English, Japanese, and Korean language sources, ranging from women’s testimonies to military and government documents, “Operation Relax” recenters the lived experiences of women against the backdrop of the Cold War. Local newspapers in the towns that hosted R&R Centers during the Korean and Vietnam Wars reveal deep collaboration between US military authorities and local liaisons in regulating and managing women’s health and bodies for the pleasure of troops. The following nine chapters of the dissertation reveal how the associated emotions of recuperation, care, and healing became forged with sexual labor in the name of military recreation under Japanese and US colonial governance across the Asia-Pacific through the R&R program.