U.S. military administration regulated Korean sex workers through a VD control bureaucracy

Evidence

As World War II came to a close, U.S. military leaders in Korea, just like their counterparts in Germany, worried about the interactions between American troops and local women. “Americans act as though Koreans were a conquered nation rather than a liberated people,” wrote the office of the commanding general. The policy became “hands off Korean women”—but this did not include women in brothels, dance halls, and working the streets. Instead, with venereal disease and other communicable infections widespread, the U.S. military government created a VD Control Section that instituted regular inspections and treatment for “entertaining girls.” This category included licensed prostitutes, dancers, “bar girls,” and waitresses. Between May 1947 and July 1948, medical personnel examined almost fifteen thousand women. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 480

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors VD control sections the U.S. used in 1940s Germany and later in Vietnam R&R areas; ties into Saundra Sturdevant and Brenda Stoltzfus’s work on base prostitution.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does the VD Control Section data give a denominator for the total number of women working in this system at the time?