Inspiration: my wife and I have been watching M*A*S*H, which portrays a not-so-subtle level of fetishization of Korean and Japanese women. Were these feelings present during the war, or are those scenes inspired by the time at which the show was written?
I just noticed the comment i wanted to reply to got deleted, but im still submitting since i aint letting my writing go to waste.
So I agree with this argument, but I am not read in Said’s writing. But like u/NFB42 there is a bit of an issue with
Similarly, Western perceptions of Japanese Geisha continue to link them to the practice of prostitution, which is not at all correct.
So the history of prostitution in Japan is actually quite thorny. This concept of ‘geisha’ is actually more modern. Historically it was considered a euphemism for prostitutes. So for instance, massage places (or in Japanese - Soaplands) that are just brothels might call their workers ‘therapists’. There is a long history of using using euphemisms for prostitutes from ‘waitress’ (teahouse girls) to ‘laundry worker’. It was often understood even that ‘entertainment’ (the gei in geisha) included sex.
As late as the 1950s Japan this euphemism existed because parents were still selling their kids into indentured servitude including indentured prostitution. This is a topic that is very complicated and it might contribute to the fetishization of Japanese women even in the present. So there was a court case of a teenage girl who was sold into indentured prostitution suing for her freedom from essentially a brothel who labelled itself as a ‘teahouse’ (likely to relate to the stuff in Gion/Kyoto) because of physical abuse and poor welfare. It was recorded she worked as a ‘geisha’ and it seemed this was understood as prostitute/hostess.
So like alluded to earlier, the historical treatment of women in Japan might also contribute to this fetishization. The patriarchal society has exacerbated this somewhat and the Japanese have an ambivalent relationship with prostitution. Parents sold their daughters to brothels and it was justified under Confucianism that these prostitutes were following filial piety. So this slightly changed as Japan opened that foreigners began to point these practices. Yet this didnt open up gender rights and i would say this remains in Japanese society. Japanese women were generally considered property, but there also existed these ‘puritanical’ ideas.
During the American Occupation, the Japanese government set up brothels specifically to prevent sexual crimes. It was depicted like a patriotic call to duty during the recruitment as it could be interpreted to sacrifice for the nation. So they asked professionals as well as others to join. Many Japanese felt like it was not right, but at the same time selling daughters and wives into prostitution was not rare at all. The US administrators shutdown the brothels because of STDs outbreak. Yet instead of considering whether the STDs were brought in by the occupiers, it was the immediate assumption it was the Japanese women. The unfortunate thing is that those women were subject to the stigma of disease spreading and being sexually active. In addition, the other ironic fact is that sexual violence by the occupiers did not likely mitigate, but just went unpunished and unreported. Dower in Embracing Defeat references statistics that rape and sexual assault might have been quite prevalent during the occupation. The media and reporting was blocked on these issues because they were controlled by the occupiers. So this could shape perceptions.
So I think that colonialism did play a part in shaping views of Japanese women. In 1995, a US admiral had to retire due insensitive comments after US soldiers were accused of raping a minor in Okinawa. The insensitive comments were that they should have gone to a brothel. See here. Prostitution is technically illegal in Japan, but it is allowed due to loopholes. In Okinawa due to their relationship with the US military putting constraints on their governance, it has limited economic development. So the comments depict the complexities that make prostitution perversive pervasive in Japan. In addition, it has made Japan a destination for sex trafficking and likely contributes to general fetishization of Asian women.
Edit: adding sources