Soldiers, the Sex Industry and New Standards

We appreciate the sacrifice of those who chose to serve their country and their people by joining the military forces and by putting their lives on the line to protect the freedom and our way of life. This is an honorable thing, especially when men and women choose to serve in order to protect and liberate the oppressed. My own family has a long history of honorable military service on both sides, and the concepts of honor, valor, and heroism are not just words to me. Military community will always have a special place in my heart.

Unfortunately, there is another side to the story, somewhat painful for me to write about. The stories of abuse, enslavement, torture and even murder of women and children who are forced to provide sexual services around military bases. This is nothing new and has been going on for centuries, but that does not excuse it. It is painful, because some of the men that take honorable oath to protect and serve the innocents end up taking advantage of defenseless women and children for the purpose of satisfying sexual desires. It is painful that military honor code is often disregarded when it comes down to R&R time – it is simply accepted as a need to relax and unwind. It is painful when the very people that were brought in to ensure peace and protect the civilians in an area instead create a demand for trafficking in and sexually exploiting women and children.

Comfort Women

Military invasion and occupation by themselves bring fear and uncertainty to the indigenous population, and sexual abuses are part of that. Japanese occupation of Southeast Asian countries during World War II was one of those cases. Japanese soldiers had “comfort women” to service them, who where enslaved hundreds of thousands of women and children. The soldiers ventured into the countryside where they kidnapped young girls and brought them to their camps. Kevin Bales describes one girl’s account as she testified before the United Nations in his book Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves. She was thirteen years old when a Japanese soldier kidnapped her, had beaten and raped her. She was taken to the barracks where she serviced up to 40 men daily. But the abuse did not stop there. There was torture, physical punishment, and murder. Over half the girls were murdered in horrific ways after they were no longer needed. After enduring the abuse by Japanese soldiers for five years, this girl, Chong Ok Sun, was eighteen years old and blind in one eye, “scarred, barren and with difficulties in speaking.” This is just one story, briefly, of the abuse that Japanese military inflicted on women and children in Southeast Asia. Japanese government has been apologizing for these actions every few years ever since their surrender in 1945. It does not seem sincere though, since Japanese men still disregard human lives. Today, Japanese men make up the largest group of sex tourists to Southeast Asia. Each year, 12 million of Japanese men travel to Cambodia, Thailand, and other countries to sexually exploit children. Somehow, Japanese men still justify and get away with diminishing dignity of women and children and destroying their lives through the crimes of sexual exploitation – it was war conditions over sixty years ago, and now it is just a matter of a price. Japanese men do not value lives of others, especially in other countries. To them, these women and children they are just means of satisfying their darkest primal urges.

After the end of war in Bosnia and Kosovo in the end of 1990s, the United Nations Peacekeeping forces moved into the countries to observe and maintain peace. But it was not only military that came in – there also were many private companies, government officials, administrative staff, and so on. Almost immediately abuse and sexual exploitation of local women and children by the international men began. Keep in mind, that these women and children had just experienced the injustices of wartime, bearing the marks of rape and sexual abuse. Now, the people that came to ensure peace and rebuilding lives are engaging in the same type of activities, except there is now money involved. Criminal elements had quickly sensed a profitable opportunity in the war-stricken countries. Soon, there was a system of supply put in place to meet the increasing demand from the International Peacekeepers. Since the local women and children could not meet the demand, women from neighboring Eastern European countries were recruited and enslaved into sex trafficking. Bosnia and Kosovo became the largest destinations for trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation at the end of 1990s. Moreover, since the Peacekeeping Forces exited in the beginning of 2000s, the organized crime has not diminished. They seek out new clients and new venues. Today, Bosnia and Kosovo are largest transit centers for sex trafficking women and children. These development prompted investigations and resolutions about the rights of women and children, yet the enforcement of these resolutions is taking its time as the UN Peacekeeping presence in Haiti and Liberia showed a tremendous increase in sex trafficking to these countries in the latter 2000s.

United States’ extensive military presence in Southeast Asia in the latter half of last century had also contributed to the creation of demand for sexual slavery and trafficking. Military bases in South Korea attributed for the growth in brothels and massage parlors in the nearby towns and trafficking in women from Philippines and former Soviet Union when there became not enough local women. Additionally, Okinawa, Japan, the R&R site for American sailors had over 1200 “bars” staffed with thousands of “entertainers” – most of who were trafficked women from Southeast Asian countries. There were many scandals that involved American service men, which caused protests in South Korea and Japan. But it was not until 2002 that things began to change.

The Fox News team travelled to South Korea in 2002 to create a documentary about South Korean sex industry and how US military was contributing to it. This documentary exposed the situation and prompted the US Congress to call for the investigation. The US commanding officials began numerous efforts to investigate and crack down on military personnel’s involvement in sex industry. Additionally, awareness campaigns were launched that “Prostitution and trafficking are demeaning acts toward women” and “a Soldier is contributing to the enslavement of women and girls from all over the world” by soliciting purchase of sexual services.

In 2000, the United States Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, becoming the forefront country to fight human trafficking. Military personnel and associated private companies are now held to higher standards. Many legislation have been adjusted and adopted to ensure that United States efforts to end human trafficking are not perceived as hypocritical. One of the changes is included in the General Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which allows military men and women to be prosecuted for soliciting sexual services. Additionally, there is “zero tolerance” in place for US government employees and contracted personnel who participate in human trafficking. Although standards and regulations have been put in place, it will be a lengthy process to implement them, assess their effectiveness, and develop accountability methods. There is a long history of sex industry developing around military installations. Efforts to minimize the demand are steps in the right direction.

Sources Used:

Katharine Moon: Military Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia, http://www.dmzhawaii.org/?p=1187

UN Peacekeeping Economies and Local SexIndustries: Connections and Implications. MICROCON Research Working Paper 17. September 2009

Kevin Bales. Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves.

Brian Parsons. Significant Steps or Empty Rhetoric? Current Efforts by the United States to Combat Sexual Trafficking near Military Bases.

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