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Roundtable: Sociocultural Consequences of U.S. Military Bases in Asia and Beyond
Organizer and Chair: Seungsook Moon, Vassar College
Discussants: Maria Hoehn, Vassar College; Christopher T. Nelson, University of North Carolina; Young-im Yu, Independent Scholar; Kyong-t'ae Pak, Independent Scholar; Siyoung Park, Western Illinois University; Nancy Kwang Johnson, Western Illinois University
This border-crossing roundtable session is designed to promote productive communication and mutual learning between scholars and NGO activists about U.S. military bases in Asia and beyond. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has maintained the sprawling network of military bases in Asia. In conjunction with Japan and the Philippines, South Korea has occupied an axial position in the U.S. military’s global strategy initially against communist forces and now against terrorist forces and other unidentified threats. As of September 30 2004, the U.S. had at least 860 overseas bases (in addition to 3,727 domestic bases and 115 bases in its “territories”). Two thirds of these overseas bases are still concentrated in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. This development has grave and far-reaching implications for the lives of tens of millions of people in various host countries in terms of employment, family, social relations of gender and sexuality, human rights and environmental security. This session brings together three scholars from the U.S. (an anthropologist, a historian, and a women’s studies scholar) and two NGO activists from South Korea. The contributors will discuss various sociocultural consequences of US military bases in Korea, Japan (Okinawa), and Germany. Two activists will focus on a new documentary (Me & an Owl) about U.S. military camptown women they produced in 2005. I hope to show this documentary immediate after the roundtable session if this session is accepted.