The Operation and Impact of the American Military’s “R&R” Programme in Japan during the Korean War

During the Korean War (1950–1953), the US military ran an official “rest and recuperation” (R&R) furlough programme that facilitated the travel to Japan of at least half of all deployed American troops. This article draws on memoirs by returnee American veterans of the Korean War, as well as Japanese histories of occupation-era prostitution, to shed light on the R&R programme, which has attracted little attention in English. The sexual exploitation of local women during the Korean War influenced the conduct of the programme, which amounted to sex tourism for the US military. The article highlights the harms of the programme for Japanese women who were sold for prostitution to American GIs by compatriot pimps and traffickers. Campaigns for redress over instances of military prostitution, such as the one in support of the “comfort women”, rely on knowledge cultivated through historical scholarship, so this article contributes to possible future campaigns towards redress for Asian victims of the American military’s R&R programme.