Citation

Yoshida Y. Geogr. Sci. 2010; 65(4): 245-265.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Hiroshima Geographical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine people's views on "panpans" (prostitutes), pimps, and the American soldiers who frequented the amusement street neighboring the Nara Rest and Recuperation Center, which was established on May 1, 1952, for American soldiers returning from the Korean War. The paper also presents the negative effects of the panpans, pimps, and soldiers on the local residents and Nara, an ancient city and a tourist destination, and clarifies how the local residents, Nara city, Nara Prefecture, and the Japanese government handled these effects. The amusement street appeared as soon as the Nara Rest and Recuperation Center was set up in the former town of Yokoryou-chou in Nara city. Two main local newspapers reported that some groups of pimps and their panpans tempted American soldiers in the amusement street, and then the local residents thought pimps and panpans were immoral. It can be said that the amusement street was a place where panpans sold themselves to American soldiers. The local residents became anxious about the amusement street, because in addition to causing educational problems for their children, it spoiled the image of Nara as an age-old and a tourist city. The local residents blamed the Nara Rest and Recuperation Center for the presence of the amusement street and demanded the relocation/abolition of the center. It is interesting to note that the Nara UNESCO cooperation meeting assumed a leading role in the demand for the relocation/abolition of the Nara Rest and Recuperation Center, citing the effect of the amusement street, with its panpans and pimps, on the children's education as the main reason. The cooperation meeting was originally a civic organization that strived to preserve and protect the culture and natural heritage of Nara, and so it emphasized the necessity of protecting the old culture of Nara. It demanded that the center not be relocated but abolished. It can be said that some of the activities in the demand for the relocation/abolition of the Nara Rest and Recuperation Center were done in the different context, protecting the old culture, from the practices at Yokohama and Kokura. From a viewpoint of gender, it should be pointed out that the problem which panpans could not but sell themselves to American soldiers was not discussed in the activities that demanded for the relocation/abolition of the Nara Rest and Recuperation Center. The local residents of the amusement street as well as its managers, panpans, and pimps were deceived when the Japanese government and U.S. Forces authorities suddenly changed their manner of dealing with the center. Soon after the official announcement that the Rest and Recuperation Center was moved from Yokoryou-chou in Nara to the city of Kobe, it was decided that the U.S. Armed Forces Marine Corps be stationed in Nara city for a while. The marines in Nara actually went to private houses and hospitals at midnight and asked for women. This suggests that so long as an army exists, the problems of gender over violence and sex, which military affairs contained, cannot be solved.