Assessing the Effects of the U.S. Military
Presence in Japan and Korea
From April 16-26th, Crew traveled in Japan and Korea with his colleagues
Rt. Richard Shimpfky, Bishop of El Camino Real, and Mary Miller, who served
for over a decade as Director of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. The
three are members of The Standing Commission on Anglican
and International Peace with Justice Concerns. They were accompanied
by Canon Brian Grieves, Peace and Justice Ministries Director for the Episcopal
Church, and James Solheim, Director of the Episcopal News Service.
In his inaugural address, President George W. Bush named North Korea as part
of an "Axis of Evil," and now he wonders why North Korean President
Kim Jung-il shows little interest in meeting with him. What would others
think of you if the most powerful person in the world said this of you?
What is the purpose of such rhetoric? If we name people to be evil or less
than human, we license ourselves to treat them that way.
Before Bush's remark, the two Koreas had made progress in working towards
reunification. Now many peace activists in Northeast Asia note that
Bush's rhetoric has re-introduced the Cold War to the Korean peninsula.
Bush objects to North Korea's manufacture and exportation of arms of mass
destruction. Local observers feel that Bush's main motive is to have
a clear enemy in the area so that he can justify building his own arms of
mass destruction, namely his new missile system. People in both North
and South fear they might get caught in the cross-fire.
North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world. Captured
at night by a satellite photography, it is completely dark, compared to the
bright white of South Korea and most others in the first world, and
to the gray light of most developing countries. President Kim Jung-il wants
to build a nuclear power plant to help modernize the country, but President
Bush will not allow it, fearing that the power plant would be used to make
atomic weapons.
There are 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in 96 places throughout
Korea.
Peace activists in Northeast Asia note that the Philippines government closed
down the existing US bases in 1992. In effect, the Filipino's said,
We don't need you anymore; please abandon your base here and go home.
Many in the Koreas and in Japan feel they would have little success in a
similar initiative to oust the U.S. from the bases that allow it to keep
close watch on the emerging competition. "The World Trade Organization (WTO)'s
next director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi has predicted that if everything
goes well after China's WTO entry, the country will become one of the two
or three largest economies in half a century" People's Daily [Beijing] for
April 22, 2002.
Japan itself manifests ominous interest in reviving its own militarism. Article
9 of its Constitution renounces war, allowing only a small Self-Defense Force.
Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi has repeatedly pushed for ways, short of
revising the constitution, that will allow the forces to act in "emergency
situations," a phrase loose enough to scare many. Would it enable the
Japanese to ally with the U.S. in attacking terrorists? How much of
a threat to the Japanese economy would it take to constitute an emergency?
On April 16, the Japanese Cabinet approved three bills outlining how Japan
should respond in the even of a foreign military attack. Nurses and
flight attendants demonstrate outside the House of Representatives, "claiming
that the bills violate the war-renouncing Constitution" (The Japan Times,
April 17, 2002, pp. 1-2)
Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi's visited the Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday,
April 21, 2002. The chief of the Organization Department of China's
government, Zeng Qinghong, protested Koizumi's actions, noting that Yasukuni
Shrine was "a psychological center" for Japanese militarism in support of
overseas invasions before World War II. (see The Asashi Shimbun for April
27, 2002, at http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/K2002042700274.html).
On April 23rd, China blocked a visit by Japanese Defense Agency Director
Gen. Nakatani and postponed the planned call by Chinese warships at a Japanese
port in protest to Koizumi's surprise visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. (The
Korea Herald, April 27, 2002).
Side Effects of the U. S. Military Presence
In Korea we visited My Sister's Place (Durae-Bang) in Uijungbu City, a refuge
for prostitutes who serve the American soldiers. Most of the prostitutes
are from outside the country, a major portion from Russia and the Philippines,
most of them under contract with the Russian Mafia. Only a few are
Korean. Most are exploited by their keepers, and if the become infected
with AIDS, they are immediately dismissed with no resources.
My Sister's Place started a bakery to help women support themselves when
they left prostitution, including many who grow too old to attract customers.
The ministry also provides support for the women's children.
Twenty years ago, many women sought to have babies by their American partners,
dreaming they would be taken to the United States as spouses. Now few
sustain such illusions; most pregnancies are aborted.
American soldiers live with little fear of prosecution by Korean Authorities.
In October 1992 Kenneth Markle, a US serviceman stationed at Camp Casey,
became the exception, the first American soldier ever tried in Korean criminal
courts. He was given a life sentence -- though it was later reduced to 15
years. He had brutally murdered Yoon Kum-Yi, a sex worker. In
many cases, soldiers charged with crimes of any sort are rushed away from
the country with little accountability to the persons and communities they
violated.
U.S. soldiers stationed in Germany have far more restrictions and accountability
than do those stationed in Korea. See Peter Kloepping's extended comparison
in "The Korean/U.S. Status of Forces Agreement Under Scrutiny" Asia Solidarity
Quarterly No. 2 (Autumn 2000): 91-96. The racist dimensions of this
discrepancy are enormous and should embarrass every American.
Practice with Us
We spent one day visiting a the Kooni Range for the U.S. military and its
corporate munitions makers, a 24-square kilometer area which has served for
bombing and firing practice. The Kooni range adjoins Maehyang-ri, a
village 40 miles southwest of Seoul. "3,200 villagers (used to) make
their living by rice-farming and harvesting crab...and other fisheries....
But their home -- their land and their sea -- have been taken over since
1951-2" "Maehyang-ri" in Asia Solidarity Quarterly No 2 (Autumn 2000): 98.
Unlike the citizens of Vieques in Puerto Rico, where the U.S. had exercised
similar target practice, the citizens of Maehyang-ri are not regarded
as citizens of equal right under the U.S. law and institutions (ASQ, 102).
Only recently has the U. S. yielded to protests and stopped practicing in
the Kooni Range, but it has no plans to clean up the area or to compensate
residents for extensive damages over the half century.
At the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), we were escorted by an affable U.S. soldier,
who told us the history of the space. His is an honored detail, serving
with the small multi-national force who have preserved the peace at this
dividing line between the two Koreas. Armed "Rock" troops from South
Korea stare eye-ball to eye-ball at their North Korean counterparts, sustaining
for over an hour at a time ferocious postures with guns at ready should an
episode occur. At one point, there are buildings for visitors which
straddle the line and let you walk in both North and South Korea. When
visitors from one country leave, their guides lock their side of the building
and visitors from the other country are free to unlock their side and enter.
While inside, often the soldiers from one side glare into the room
at the visitors from the other country. When South Korea build a huge
flag pole to demonstrate its flag, North Korea build a much larger flag pole
to sport its flag -- one so large that there if often not enough wind to
make if unfurl.
We left this stand-off to have lunch in the mess hall at Camp Boniface,
on the South side. As we neared Camp Boniface, our host soldier took
the bullet clip out of his pistol, fiddled with it, and reinstated it.
"What was that about?" one of us asked, expressing the anxiety of many.
"I merely took the bullet out of the chamber. I won't need it again
until I am back at DMZ," he explained. "Does anyone monitor whether
you do that?" someone asked. "No, it's voluntary, but we all do it
as a safety precaution."
What is needed in Northeast Asia, indeed the world over, is for everyone
to remove the bullet out of the chamber. My friend Ron Miller reminded
me that the chamber is the human heart.
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