Voices From the Ground: Korean and Vietnamese Women in Wartime

Abstract

Introduction. During the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam were considered “hot spots” of the confrontation between superpowers. Therefore, it is well known among academia that these clashes were fueled by military and political views. Moreover, the Korean and Vietnamese men’s military service for special operations is well known among academia, and the image of Korean and Vietnamese women appears indistinctly in historical sources. Methods and materials. While most histories of the Vietnam War and the Korean War have tended to describe Vietnamese and Korean women merely as tragic victims, prostitutes, or patriotic heroines, this article reveals far more complex and colourful accounts of why they joined the armed forces and what kinds of personal and emotional feelings they had during the wars. In the process of studying this issue, the author uses original historical records (writings, reports, correspondences, diaries, etc.) recorded by ordinary people who witnessed and experienced the Vietnam War and the Korean War. The author combines two main research methods of historical science (historical method and logical method) with other research methods (system, analysis, synthesis, comparison, etc.) to clarify the article’s contents. Analysis and results. This paper challenges the conventional understanding of the Cold War as a confrontation between the two superpowers. The article aims to decentralise perspectives on the Cold War by exploring the experiences and memories of ordinary people who witnessed and experienced various kinds of wars. The work revitalises the everyday lives of women in Korea and Vietnam – the potential flashpoints in the Cold War. Working for peace remained their primary motivation, but some women might believe that conducting female duties in wars was a way to get higher social status and equal gender. In doing so, the paper contributes to a reconsideration of the Cold War narratives through the experiences of many wartime participants.