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African American Soldiers and the Origins of Korean Transnational Adoption

Kori A. Graves

in A War Born Family: African American Adoption in the Wake of the Korean War

African American soldiers took part in the child-centered humanitarian efforts that developed during the Korean War. The efforts that all soldiers made to provide food, clothing, shelter, and ... More

African American soldiers took part in the child-centered humanitarian efforts that developed during the Korean War. The efforts that all soldiers made to provide food, clothing, shelter, and educations for Korean children displaced or orphaned by the war received considerable political and media attention. The black press mobilized the stories of black soldiers caring for Korean children to advance the fight for African Americans’ civil rights in the military and throughout US society. However, African American soldiers’ social and sexual relationships with Korean women revealed the ways that many black men exploited vulnerable women in war-torn countries. The children born as a result of these relationships faced punishing exclusions and ostracism because of US and Korean race and gender hierarchies that restricted the legal and social status of black men and the Korean women who associated with soldiers. These ideas would influence the development of Korean transnational adoption and African Americans’ participation in this method of family formation.Less

How Local Casualties Shape Politics

Douglas L. Kriner and Francis X. Shen

in The Casualty Gap: The Causes and Consequences of American Wartime Inequalities

The death of a soldier can affect an entire community. Friends and neighbors, politicians and community leaders, and even just readers of the local newspaper join in the grieving, mourning, and ... More

The death of a soldier can affect an entire community. Friends and neighbors, politicians and community leaders, and even just readers of the local newspaper join in the grieving, mourning, and healing. This chapter seeks to understand the mechanisms through which local casualties can have these community-wide effects. Specifically, it focuses on three possibilities. The casualty rate suffered by each American's local community can affect (1) one's sense of personal contact with fallen soldiers; (2) the type of elite cues one receives; and (3) the scope and tenor of war coverage one sees in the local media. It is argued that through each of these mechanisms, the casualty gap can create politically salient cleavages in Americans' wartime opinions and behaviors, and these in turn can fundamentally influence the course of politics and policy.Less

“It Could Just as Well Be Me”: Japanese American and African American GIs in the Army Diary

Matthew M. Briones

in Jim and Jap Crow: A Cultural History of 1940s Interracial America

This chapter looks at how Kikuchi found army life somewhat of a rude awakening after having spent two years living in Chicago, working on his master's degree in social work, and conducting research ... More

This chapter looks at how Kikuchi found army life somewhat of a rude awakening after having spent two years living in Chicago, working on his master's degree in social work, and conducting research for JERS. It proved to be as much a mental challenge as a physical one: the bureaucracy of the military hierarchy and its conservative ideology were most surprising to Kikuchi. He discovered that deep-seated racism directed toward African American soldiers and civilians pervaded the army ranks, a difficult pill to swallow given his own position as a recently imprisoned Nisei. Nevertheless, he managed to retain an intense faith and belief in the power and potential of America's democracy, hoping that his individual service would, in some small measure, reflect the commitment of the Nisei as a whole.Less

“All We Ask Is Justice”: The Germans Respond

Christian B. Keller

in Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory

As May gave way to June 1863, German American soldiers and civilians began to stop explaining and started questioning, even attacking, Anglo American motives behind the ... More

As May gave way to June 1863, German American soldiers and civilians began to stop explaining and started questioning, even attacking, Anglo American motives behind the criticism of the Eleventh Corps. Many prominent newspaper editors and not a few political leaders believed that nativism was the true reason the Germans had been so badly singled out for blame. The time had come to publicly respond to the outrageous allegations, and several mass meetings were held that clearly expressed a spirit of German American unity and anti-Americanization. Pennsylvanian Charles Goepp then rose to accentuate the “national blunder” that was made in accusing the Germans. Following Goepp, Friedrich Kapp took the stand to thunderous applause. “All we ask is justice”, he proclaimed. “We desire to be no more, but we will be no less, than Americans; we mean to be weighed in the scale of our actions and our merits”. He mentioned the slanders of the American press again, agreeing with his fellow speakers that Germans would no longer stand such insults.Less

Ethnic and Colonial Soldiers and the Politics of Disavowal

T. Fujitani

in Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II

This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show that during the Second World War the positions of U.S. and Japanese ethnic and colonial soldiers, as well as the ... More

This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show that during the Second World War the positions of U.S. and Japanese ethnic and colonial soldiers, as well as the respective regimes that called them national subjects and then mobilized them into service, were surprisingly similar. It seeks seek to show how discussions about, policies concerning, and representations of these soldiers tell us a great deal about the characteristics of wartime racism, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, gender politics, the family, and related issues on both sides of the Pacific that go well beyond the Japanese American and Korean Japanese soldiers themselves. The chapter then discusses two factors that propelled the American and Japanese total war regimes toward vigorous campaigns in which each presented itself as the authentic defender of freedom, equality, and anti-imperialism while pointing to the other as not only the true racist power and oppressor but also as duplicitous in its denunciations of racism. An overview of the three parts of the book is also presented.Less

: Retreating and Cowardly Poltroons: The Anglo American Reaction

Christian B. Keller

in Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory

Just as the German soldiers in the Eleventh Corps began to recover from the shock of their losses and attempted to reorganize their shattered regiments in the days after the ... More

Just as the German soldiers in the Eleventh Corps began to recover from the shock of their losses and attempted to reorganize their shattered regiments in the days after the battle, they were attacked again, this time by their own comrades in the Army of the Potomac. Non-Germans in the Eleventh Corps itself railed against the “damn Dutch”, but because of their own experiences in the battle and proximity to the Germans many of their vituperations were either qualified or muted. The most vocal denunciations emanated from soldiers of other corps, especially the Third and Twelfth, which had to be hastily thrown in to stem the faltering Confederate advance late on the night of the second of May. A few Anglo American soldiers who knew them well defended the Germans, but the much more widespread name-calling and scapegoating continued right up to the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign. Indeed, the reputation of German American soldiers in the eyes of their comrades in the eastern theater would never recover.Less

GIs and Girls around the Globe: The Geopolitics of Sex and Marriage in World War II

Susan Zeiger

in Entangling Alliances: Foreign War Brides and American Soldiers in the Twentieth Century

This chapter explores how American men and local women engaged in relationships overseas during World War II. The world war of the 1940s, fought around the globe, produced marriages by the scores of ... More

This chapter explores how American men and local women engaged in relationships overseas during World War II. The world war of the 1940s, fought around the globe, produced marriages by the scores of thousands, and did so in every region where American soldiers were posted. This marital pattern stood in contrast with that of World War I, when marriage was more limited and concentrated primarily in a single nation, France. The geo-racial politics of wartime sex and marriage were as striking a feature of soldier relationships during World War II as the numbers themselves. US military policies, practices, and preferences, alongside the preferences of US soldiers, shaped the distribution of marriage in a myriad of ways, with race and political status being two of the most salient features. Women around the globe, however, were not passive targets of military policy or soldiers' desire.Less

The Racial Borderlands of the Korean War

Daniel Y. Kim

in The Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War

This chapter brings together an array of Korean War novels, authored by US writers of color, to engage in a counterhegemonic project of cultural memory that explores the conflict’s significance for ... More

This chapter brings together an array of Korean War novels, authored by US writers of color, to engage in a counterhegemonic project of cultural memory that explores the conflict’s significance for African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans: Toni Morrison’s Home, Rolando Hinojosa’s trilogy of works set during the conflict (Korean Love Songs, Rites and Witnesses, and The Useless Servants), and Ha Jin’s War Trash. These works critique the mistreatment of US soldiers of color and Chinese combatants by those in command. Morrison’s and Hinojosa’s novels emphasize the racism that persisted within the newly integrated US military, and Jin’s highlights the plight of prisoners of war in US-administered detention centers. These novels also highlight, however, nonwhite soldiers—including African American and Chicano servicemen—who committed atrocities during the conflict. Hinojosa’s and Jin’s writings, moreover, contextualize the war in a wider and longer set of historical trajectories: the former suggests a connection between US imperial aspirations as they took shape in 1950 and the ones that led to the US-Mexico War a century before; the latter conveys how the Korean War has been framed by the nationalist mythology of the People’s Republic of China as a great victory against US imperialism.Less

Coexisting in the Valley of Death: American Soldiers and Nagasaki Residents during the Occupation

Chad R. Diehl

in Resurrecting Nagasaki: Reconstruction and the Formation of Atomic Narratives

This chapter narrates the presence of American soldiers in the daily life of Nagasaki residents. It details the reconstruction and revival of Nagasaki and how it began with the presence and the work ... More

This chapter narrates the presence of American soldiers in the daily life of Nagasaki residents. It details the reconstruction and revival of Nagasaki and how it began with the presence and the work of the occupation forces. In the early months of the occupation, both American occupying forces and Nagasaki residents discovered in each other common humanity that had been nearly erased by the ravages of war and the waves of propaganda, not to mention the atomic bombing. The chapter illustrates how they established a foundation that helped to bring about a successful reconstruction of the city. It looks into the cultural rapprochement between the United States and Japan and the importation of new cultural activities, combined with a renewed cultivation of preexisting international phenomena, to highlight the urban identity of the city as a site of international culture. The chapter highlights how the city as a whole experienced an unprecedented amount of engagement with and influence from a foreign culture, at least in the modern age.Less

“To Go and Help Be Free” Migration and the Black Military Experience

Leslie A. Schwalm

in Emancipation's Diaspora: Race and Reconstruction in the Upper Midwest

This chapter focuses on African American soldiers. Black soldiers and sailors helped turn the tide of war and proved instrumental in the Union's victory over the South. Soldiering also turned the ... More

This chapter focuses on African American soldiers. Black soldiers and sailors helped turn the tide of war and proved instrumental in the Union's victory over the South. Soldiering also turned the tide of racially proscribed citizenship, as African American men used their willingness and ability to shoulder the burdens of military sacrifice to make a strong claim for citizenship's prerogatives and rights. Recent arrivals in the upper Midwest linked their geographic migration to their social migration—from slaves to contraband property, from contrabands to soldiers, from soldiers to citizens.Less

Military Orientalism and the Intimacies of Collaboration: Sacrifice and the Construction of the Nisei Citizen-Soldier as a Model Minority

Daniel Y. Kim

in The Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War

The participation of Japanese American soldiers in the Korean War as it was depicted in Hollywood films, the mainstream press, and the Pacific Citizen is the focus of this chapter. Such texts reveal ... More

The participation of Japanese American soldiers in the Korean War as it was depicted in Hollywood films, the mainstream press, and the Pacific Citizen is the focus of this chapter. Such texts reveal the “military Orientalism,” a subset of military multiculturalism, that took shape during the conflict, which posited Japanese Americans as citizen-subjects par excellence. This ideology asserted that the willingness of Japanese American men to serve their country in World War II (despite the racism of the internment) and in newly integrated combat units during the Korean War exemplified an ethos of sacrifice, a racialized value system crucial to their status as model minority subjects. This chapter traces the emergence of this military Orientalism across several cultural sites: two films that were released in 1959, Pork Chop Hill and The Crimson Kimono; tributes that appeared in the mainstream press to Nisei soldiers like Hiroshi Miyamura, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Korean War; Go for Broke!, a 1951 film set during World War II but released during the Korean War; and finally, the exhaustive coverage of this film’s production and reception in the Pacific Citizen, the newspaper of the Japanese American Citizens League.Less

Contracts of War: September 1864–April 1865

Brian Taylor

in Fighting for Citizenship: Black Northerners and the Debate over Military Service in the Civil War

This chapter covers black soldiers’ agitation against unequal treatment from the US Army, including inferior pay and lack of access to promotion, and the Confederacy’s refusal to treat black soldiers ... More

This chapter covers black soldiers’ agitation against unequal treatment from the US Army, including inferior pay and lack of access to promotion, and the Confederacy’s refusal to treat black soldiers as prisoners of war. It focuses on the contractual argument that black soldiers, who had enlisted under promises of equality, made in the black press and in communications with government officials, an argument that related to the citizenship black soldiers sought their service to win and the description of citizenship enumerated by Edward Bates in 1862. This chapter also deals with the parallel campaign of agitation waged by black civilians on the home front, and it deals with the end of the Civil War and the anxiety felt by African Americans who feared they would be forsaken when the fighting ended.Less

Liberator

Brad Asher

in The Most Hated Man in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General Stephen Burbridge

Burbridge played a major role in ending slavery in Kentucky, although his contribution has historically been understated. He implemented the Lincoln administration’s decision to enroll and enlist ... More

Burbridge played a major role in ending slavery in Kentucky, although his contribution has historically been understated. He implemented the Lincoln administration’s decision to enroll and enlist black troops, which directly attacked slavery in Kentucky since slaves gained their freedom by serving as soldiers. Although not an emancipationist by nature, Burbridge issued the orders that allowed black enlistment, moderated Governor Thomas Bramlette’s hostility to the plan, utilized black troops, and protected black soldiers and their families. His actions created cracks in the slave system that African Americans blew wide open by their decisions to serve as soldiers.Less

“Tan Yanks” and Black Korea: Military Multiculturalism and Race War in Movies and the Press

Daniel Y. Kim

in The Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War

This chapter analyzes cinematic and journalistic depictions of the Korean War that centered on the role played by African American soldiers serving in integrated combat units. Heroic depictions of ... More

This chapter analyzes cinematic and journalistic depictions of the Korean War that centered on the role played by African American soldiers serving in integrated combat units. Heroic depictions of “Tan Yanks” in both the mainstream press and black newspapers highlighted the usefulness of an integrated military to the global ideological battle against Communism, especially in terms of winning “the hearts and minds” of the formerly colonized. This chapter demonstrates how the Korean War facilitated the articulation of an early version of the ideology that Melanie McAllister has termed “military multiculturalism,” which is evident in two Hollywood films from the 1950s: Pork Chop Hill (1959) and All the Young Men (1960). This chapter also addresses two strains of Orientalism that also surfaced on the pages of black newspapers: the first expressed an Afro-Asian sense of racial solidarity and intimacy with the Korean people as a nonwhite nation that had suffered under a Japanese colonialism that had been supported by US and European powers prior to World War II; the second took shape as a fascination with amorous relationships that had formed between black servicemen and Japanese female civilians prior to and during the Korean War and the interracial desires they embodied.Less

Propaganda and Patient Protest

in War's Waste: Rehabilitation in World War I America

This chapter describes in detail the rehabilitation propaganda and complaints of disabled American soldiers. Rehabilitation propaganda worked to maintain political support for both the passage of the ... More

This chapter describes in detail the rehabilitation propaganda and complaints of disabled American soldiers. Rehabilitation propaganda worked to maintain political support for both the passage of the War Risk Insurance Act (WRIA) and the war itself. The Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) propaganda and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reports showed two very different views of physical rehabilitation—one based on ideals, the other on lived experience. The disabled soldiers in charge of the Come-Back assumed that while most able-bodied men had many prospects for marriage, the disabled veteran should feel lucky if even one woman expressed interest in him and should thus reciprocate her signs of affection, even with false words of praise. Military physicians employed the diagnosis of hospitalism to avoid taking responsibility for medical failure. Thus, hospitalism placed the blame on the patient.Less

Introduction

Stacey Peebles

in Welcome to the Suck: Narrating the American Soldier's Experience in Iraq

This introductory chapter provides an overview the book’s main themes. This book explores American soldiers' experiences in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War in prose, poetry, and films. The ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview the book’s main themes. This book explores American soldiers' experiences in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War in prose, poetry, and films. The experiences of soldiers in these wars differ to the experiences of those who have been to Vietnam. This is a result of the effects of large-scale advances in medical and communications technology and the greatly increased presence of women in the military. What is most evident in these narratives is the soldier’s desire to be truly “in between,” to break down and transcend the cultural and social categories which have traditionally defined identity. Ultimately, however, that desire is thwarted. War, and contemporary American war in particular, enforces categorization even as it forces encounters across the boundaries of media, gender, nation, and the body.Less

Making a Military Man: Iraq, Gender, and the Failure of the Masculine Collective

Stacey Peebles

in Welcome to the Suck: Narrating the American Soldier's Experience in Iraq

This chapter considers the memoirs of three war veterans. Joel Turnipseed was Marine reservist during the Persian Gulf War, and he worked in the Sixth Motor Transport Battalion, or “Baghdad Express,” ... More

This chapter considers the memoirs of three war veterans. Joel Turnipseed was Marine reservist during the Persian Gulf War, and he worked in the Sixth Motor Transport Battalion, or “Baghdad Express,” and later published a memoir by that name in 2003. Nathaniel Fick was a Marine Corps officer who served in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, and published One Bullet Away in 2005. Kayla Williams, one of the growing number of female soldiers serving in the military, worked as an Arabic translator for Army military intelligence in Iraq, and her memoir Love My Rifle More Than You appeared in 2005. Turnipseed, Fick, and Williams all struggle with their conceptions of masculinity, and military masculinity in particular.Less