Beyond the Shadow of Camptown: Korean Military Brides in America (Nation of Newcomers)

Since the beginning of the Korean War in 1950, nearly 100,000 Korean women have immigrated to the United States as the wives of American soldiers. Based on extensive oral interviews and archival research, Beyond the Shadow of Camptown tells the stories of these women, from their presumed association with U.S. military camptowns and prostitution to their struggles within the intercultural families they create in the United States. Historian Ji-Yeon Yuh argues that military brides are a unique prism through which to view cultural and social contact between Korea and the United States. After placing these women within the context of Korean-U.S. relations, Japanese and U.S. colonialism, and the legacies of military prostitution, Yuh goes on to explore their lives, their coping strategies with their new families, and their relationships with their Korean families and homeland. Topics range from the personal -- the role of food in their lives; to the communal -- the efforts of military wives to form support groups that enable them to affirm a dual identity that both Americans and Koreans deny them.


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