Minjeong Kim
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824869816
- eISBN:
- 9780824877842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824869816.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Chapter 2 provides the background for the empirical study that is the basis of Elusive Belonging. I first describe the context of rural South Korea, where one in three marriages is an international ...
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Chapter 2 provides the background for the empirical study that is the basis of Elusive Belonging. I first describe the context of rural South Korea, where one in three marriages is an international marriage, followed by a description of international marriage trends in Korea. Because most of my subjects were matched by the Unification Church, an international religious organization that promotes intermarriage, I then explain the Unification Church and its matching process. I describe the Korean state’s policies regarding marriage migrants and its “multiculturalism” project. Finally, I provide general information on my informants.Less
Chapter 2 provides the background for the empirical study that is the basis of Elusive Belonging. I first describe the context of rural South Korea, where one in three marriages is an international marriage, followed by a description of international marriage trends in Korea. Because most of my subjects were matched by the Unification Church, an international religious organization that promotes intermarriage, I then explain the Unification Church and its matching process. I describe the Korean state’s policies regarding marriage migrants and its “multiculturalism” project. Finally, I provide general information on my informants.
Minjeong Kim
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824869816
- eISBN:
- 9780824877842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824869816.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The introductory chapter begins with a review of the literature on international marriages from Asia and within Asia, and then covers the literature on marriage immigrants. The chapter explains ...
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The introductory chapter begins with a review of the literature on international marriages from Asia and within Asia, and then covers the literature on marriage immigrants. The chapter explains politics of belonging as the main theoretical framework, which links the political and the emotional. It discusses the intersections of intimacy and care, anxiety, and gratitude with hierarchies of gender, class, nationality, and race, and how these emotions can shape marriage immigrants’ sense of belonging to Korean society. It also describes the author’s subjectivity as a researcher with focus on the author’s liminal position in the field. The chapter concludes with an overview of the remaining chapters.Less
The introductory chapter begins with a review of the literature on international marriages from Asia and within Asia, and then covers the literature on marriage immigrants. The chapter explains politics of belonging as the main theoretical framework, which links the political and the emotional. It discusses the intersections of intimacy and care, anxiety, and gratitude with hierarchies of gender, class, nationality, and race, and how these emotions can shape marriage immigrants’ sense of belonging to Korean society. It also describes the author’s subjectivity as a researcher with focus on the author’s liminal position in the field. The chapter concludes with an overview of the remaining chapters.
Etsuko Takushi Crissey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824856489
- eISBN:
- 9780824875619
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824856489.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The disproportionate U.S, military presence in Okinawa, which began with the 1945 battle followed by twenty-seven years under U.S. military occupation, continues to this day. It has brought deadly ...
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The disproportionate U.S, military presence in Okinawa, which began with the 1945 battle followed by twenty-seven years under U.S. military occupation, continues to this day. It has brought deadly accidents, serious crimes, including rape and murder, environmental destruction, and economic stagnation to what remains Japan’s poorest prefecture. These small islands bear 70 percent of the total U.S. military presence in Japan on 0.6 percent of the nation’s land area with less than 1 percent of its population. Yet, even as this burden of bases continues to impose dangers and disruptions, approximately 200 Okinawan women every year have married American servicemen and returned with them to live in the United States. Former Okinawa Times reporter Etsuko Takushi Crissey traveled throughout their adopted country, conducting wide-ranging interviews and a questionnaire survey of women who married and immigrated between the early 1950s and the mid-1990s. She asked how they met their husbands, why they decided to marry, what the reactions of both families had been, and what life had been like for them in the United States. She concentrates especially on their experiences as immigrants, wives, mothers, working women, and members of a racial minority. Many describe severe hardships they encountered. Crissey presents their diverse personal accounts, her survey results, and comparative data on divorces, challenging the widespread notion that such marriages almost always fail, with the women ending up abandoned and helpless in a strange land. She compares their experiences with international marriages of American soldiers stationed in Europe and mainland Japan.Less
The disproportionate U.S, military presence in Okinawa, which began with the 1945 battle followed by twenty-seven years under U.S. military occupation, continues to this day. It has brought deadly accidents, serious crimes, including rape and murder, environmental destruction, and economic stagnation to what remains Japan’s poorest prefecture. These small islands bear 70 percent of the total U.S. military presence in Japan on 0.6 percent of the nation’s land area with less than 1 percent of its population. Yet, even as this burden of bases continues to impose dangers and disruptions, approximately 200 Okinawan women every year have married American servicemen and returned with them to live in the United States. Former Okinawa Times reporter Etsuko Takushi Crissey traveled throughout their adopted country, conducting wide-ranging interviews and a questionnaire survey of women who married and immigrated between the early 1950s and the mid-1990s. She asked how they met their husbands, why they decided to marry, what the reactions of both families had been, and what life had been like for them in the United States. She concentrates especially on their experiences as immigrants, wives, mothers, working women, and members of a racial minority. Many describe severe hardships they encountered. Crissey presents their diverse personal accounts, her survey results, and comparative data on divorces, challenging the widespread notion that such marriages almost always fail, with the women ending up abandoned and helpless in a strange land. She compares their experiences with international marriages of American soldiers stationed in Europe and mainland Japan.
Etsuko Takushi Crissey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824856489
- eISBN:
- 9780824875619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824856489.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
After World War II, the U.S. military built vast installations and imposed occupation rule until 1972. For all the post-war years Okinawans have lived next door to American bases. As one result, ...
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After World War II, the U.S. military built vast installations and imposed occupation rule until 1972. For all the post-war years Okinawans have lived next door to American bases. As one result, large numbers of Okinawan women married American military men and immigrated to the U.S. Couples had to overcome stubborn resistance to their marriages from the U.S. military in Okinawa, and a legacy of discriminatory immigration laws in the United States, especially targeting Asians. Couples also faced racial prejudice living in the U.S., where interracial marriages were illegal in several states until 1967. Negative stereotypes about international marriages abound in American popular culture, such as James A. Michener’s 1954 novel Sayonara about an American airman and his Japanese fiancee. Yet many women interviewed in this study had successful marriages and fulfilling lives, demonstrating extraordinary courage and perseverance in adjusting to a markedly different society and culture. Many have formed local Okinawa prefectural associations throughout the U.S. for mutual support and participation with their families in Okinawan cultural events.Less
After World War II, the U.S. military built vast installations and imposed occupation rule until 1972. For all the post-war years Okinawans have lived next door to American bases. As one result, large numbers of Okinawan women married American military men and immigrated to the U.S. Couples had to overcome stubborn resistance to their marriages from the U.S. military in Okinawa, and a legacy of discriminatory immigration laws in the United States, especially targeting Asians. Couples also faced racial prejudice living in the U.S., where interracial marriages were illegal in several states until 1967. Negative stereotypes about international marriages abound in American popular culture, such as James A. Michener’s 1954 novel Sayonara about an American airman and his Japanese fiancee. Yet many women interviewed in this study had successful marriages and fulfilling lives, demonstrating extraordinary courage and perseverance in adjusting to a markedly different society and culture. Many have formed local Okinawa prefectural associations throughout the U.S. for mutual support and participation with their families in Okinawan cultural events.
Nicholas L. Syrett
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469629537
- eISBN:
- 9781469629551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629537.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
While most Americans oppose child marriage internationally, few realize that it is still legal to marry below the age of eighteen in all states in the U.S. There are three reasons to oppose the ...
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While most Americans oppose child marriage internationally, few realize that it is still legal to marry below the age of eighteen in all states in the U.S. There are three reasons to oppose the practice: (1) because of the health risks for those who marry as minors; (2) because it plays into the gendered dominance of an older husband and younger wife that has characterized so much of marriage history; (3) and because allowing for minor marriage buys into the fantasy that marriage itself is really capable of “solving” the problems of teenage sex and pregnancy.Less
While most Americans oppose child marriage internationally, few realize that it is still legal to marry below the age of eighteen in all states in the U.S. There are three reasons to oppose the practice: (1) because of the health risks for those who marry as minors; (2) because it plays into the gendered dominance of an older husband and younger wife that has characterized so much of marriage history; (3) and because allowing for minor marriage buys into the fantasy that marriage itself is really capable of “solving” the problems of teenage sex and pregnancy.
