Through the enhanced consciousness of being citizens of a minor power and the anti-American sentiments, the conscripts came to stress the sense of sacrifice for the sake of the nation but also question their own identity. This conflict makes the conscripts silent regarding their experience at the KATUSA even though they had the opportunity to experience the more advanced American military system and study English. Excluding <Interviewee 12>, all interviewees confessed that they never mentioned to others they had served at the KATUSA. <Interviewee 4>, for example, noted that he even never told his current close friends about his military life at the KATUSA.
I must say that I really came to feel ashamed of attending the KATUSA, the more I got to know about this place. It sort of became a mistake of my life I couldn’t get rid of, I was that ashamed…which I’m still. Although I talk about the military with people who also served at the KATUSA, if I’m with people from the general Korean army, I start feeling quite bad after some time. (Interviewee 3>
This aspect of shamefulness is also found in the interview with <Interviewee 15>.
Because I didn’t join the Korean army, I can’t share the same experience with other Koreans. Furthermore, it means that I will get teased of having joined the KATUSA for the rest of my life. People usually don’t know that a combat unit exists at the KATUSA6. (Do you get teased of having been a KATUSA?) Yes, I can’t tell anyone about it. (Don’t you rather get recognized as an elite person by others?) No, I don’t think so. They will call me a fake soldier for having had an easy military life. (Interviewee 15)
Men acknowledge masculinity through their experience at the military, whose hierarchical structure is decided by the level of personal sacrifice and commitment.
Notwithstanding personal reasons of choice, it becomes a hegemonic masculinity that decides how an individual and group perceive themselves as men. Anti-Americanism enhances the hegemonic masculinity among Korean men with heightened nationalistic male consciousness. The politics of hegemonic masculinity not only sets the standards of masculinity but also reinforces its power through discriminating people that don’t meet the standards or by marginalizing them. On a global level, the inferiority complex of being citizens of a minor power along with the anti-U.S. sentiments resulting from KATUSA’sexperienceof discrimination from U.S. soldiers tends to enforce a strong sense of national identity and common efforts of constructing masculinity that differs from that of the American soldiers. Also, the superiority on a personal level rooted in the gap of academic background and class between the KATUSA conscripts and U.S.
6Itmeans thathe doesn’tgetacknowledgementforhaving served atthe combatunitatthe
general private soldiers enhance the anger of discrimination against them and develop anti-Americanism. These are the main drivers for the conscripts at the KATUSA to maintain a separate Korean military culture and sexuality. Research on the KATUSA conscripts shows how military masculinities have been competed, cooperated and chosen in a multi-raced military or a multi-nation military. It would inform us of how important to achieve a global perspective in studying masculinities.
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