Description
Book SynopsisEssays explore the social impact of Americas global network of military bases by examining interactions between U.S. soldiers and members of host communities in South Korea, Japan/Okinawa, and West Germany.
Trade Review“[T]his is an important contribution to the study of empires, especially US imperialism. Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.” - G. B. Osborne,
Choice“
Over There provides us with an important analytic framework and reminds us that commanding officers must respond to and manage the real human needs of all those who come in contact with American military
institutions. How this is done tells us much about the nature of U.S. power.” - John Willoughby,
Journal of Military History“. . . [T]his is a tremendously valuable book, brimming with new information and unique insights. All students of the global American military presence from World War II through the present will want to consult its essays. One hopes the authors will continue and expand upon their work in this burgeoning and interdisciplinaryfriendly field, and inspire others to follow their lead.” - Michael Cullen Green,
Pacific Affairs“Maria Höhn and Seungsook Moon’s edited volume,
Over There, presents valuable new scholarship on the local politics and gendered relations that constitute and undergird this vast military empire. ...the collection contains valuable essays on gender, race, class, and the U.S. military. It successfully positions U.S. military bases as key sites of U.S. empire and challenges scholars to work comparatively and recognize variation as they document the history of U.S. military bases abroad.” - Jana K. Lipman,
Journal of American History“This book gives a nuanced analysis of the power relations of the American empire and militarised masculinity within it... It is ... a most enlightening comparative overview of the impact of American military bases in the three most important host countries of the US military empire.” - Trond Ove Tøllefsen,
European Review of History“
Over There is a splendid book. Maria Höhn and Seungsook Moon are themselves experienced investigators into the multi-layerings of U.S. military influence in Germany and South Korea. Here they have combined their gender-smart research with that of insightful contributors to offer us fresh understandings of how German, Korean, and Japanese women and men see the American bases in their midst and cope with U.S. policies designed to make them complicit. I have learned a lot from
Over There.”—
Cynthia Enloe, author of
Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War“This wide-ranging, interdisciplinary collection makes critically visible the sprawling network of U.S. military bases in two inseparable ways. First, base societies are revealed to be diverse social landscapes in which global questions of sovereignty and the relations of unequal nation-states have been deeply imprinted on everyday life. Second, the book powerfully identifies gendered and sexual politics as central to the construction, and contestation, of the U.S. military presence. Richly attuned to local variation and perception, resistance and historical change, these essays offer an inspiring agenda for globalized histories of gender and U.S. militarization.”—
Paul A. Kramer, author of
The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines“. . . [T]his is a tremendously valuable book, brimming with new information and unique insights. All students of the global American military presence from World War II through the present will want to consult its essays. One hopes the authors will continue and expand upon their work in this burgeoning and interdisciplinaryfriendly field, and inspire others to follow their lead.” -- Michael Cullen Green * Pacific Affairs *
“
Over There provides us with an important analytic framework and reminds us that commanding officers must respond to and manage the real human needs of all those who come in contact with American military institutions. How this is done tells us much about the nature of U.S. power.” -- John Willoughby * Journal of Military History *
“[T]his is an important contribution to the study of empires, especially US imperialism. Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.” -- G. B. Osborne * Choice *
“Maria Höhn and Seungsook Moon’s edited volume,
Over There, presents valuable new scholarship on the local politics and gendered relations that constitute and undergird this vast military empire. ...the collection contains valuable essays on gender, race, class, and the U.S. military. It successfully positions U.S. military bases as key sites of U.S. empire and challenges scholars to work comparatively and recognize variation as they document the history of U.S. military bases abroad.” -- Jana K. Lipman * Journal of American History *
“This book gives a nuanced analysis of the power relations of the American empire and militarised masculinity within it... It is ... a most enlightening comparative overview of the impact of American military bases in the three most important host countries of the US military empire.” -- Trond Ove Tøllefsen * European Review of History *
Table of ContentsIllustrations ix
Tables xi
A Note on Foreign Language Conventions xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction. The Politics of Gender, Sexuality, Race, and Class in the U. S. Military Empire / Maria Hohn and Seungsook Moon 1
Part I. Monitored Liaisons: Local Women and GIs in the Making of Empire
1. Regulating Desire, Managing the Empire: U. S. Military Prostitution in South Korea, 1945–1970 / Seungsook Moon 39
2. "Pan-Pan Girls" Performing and Resisting Neocolonialism(s) in the Pacific Theater: U. S. Military Prostitution in Occupied Japan, 1945–1952 / Michiko Takeuchi 78
3. "You Can't Pin Sergeant's Stripes on an Archangel": Soldiering, Sexuality, and U. S. Politics in Germany / Maria Hohn 109
Part II. Civilian Entanglements with the Empire: American and Foreign Women Abroad and at Home
4. U. S. Military Families Abroad in the Post-Cold War Era and "New Global Posture" / Donna Alvah 149
5. Crossfire Couples: Marginality and Agency among Okinawan Women in Relationships with U. S. Military Men / Chris Ames 176
6. Hidden Soldiers: Working for the "National Defense" / Robin Riley 203
Part III. Talking Back to the Empire: Local Men and Women
7. In the U. S. Army but Not Quite of It: Contesting the Imperial Power in a Discourse of Katusas / Seungsook Moon 231
8. "The American Soldier Dances, the German Soldier Marches": The Transformation of Germans' Views on GIs, Masculinity, and Militarism / Maria Hohn 258
9. In the Middle of the Road I Stand Transfixed / Christopher Nelson 280
Part IV. The Empire Under Siege: Racial Crisis, Abuse, and Violence
10. The Racial Crisis of 1970–1971 in the U. S. Military: Finding Solutions in West Germany and South Korea / Maria Hohn 311
11. Camptown Prostitution and the Imperial SOFA: Abuse and Violence against Transnational Camptown Women in South Korea / Seungsook Moon 337
12. Abu Ghraib: A Predictable Tragedy? / Jeff Bennett 366
Conclusion. The Empire at the Crossroads? / Maria Hohn and Seungsook Moon 397
References 409
Contributors 439
Index 441
