ABSTRACT
East Asia is now one of the most militarised regions of the planet, hosting the huge standing armies of the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the smaller armies of Taiwan, Vietnam and Mongolia. As the European powers and the United States advanced into East Asia in the nineteenth century, their advance was accompanied by various kinds of relationships with people in colonies, settlements and treaty ports. While the military managed the sexuality of soldiers through the military brothels, the sexuality of men and women on the home front in Japan was also being managed. Vietnam has been subjected to various waves of colonisation. Militarised sexualities can be observed in most of the countries of the region. In some countries this is because matters of marriage, sexuality and reproduction are shaped by the government’s privileging of military concerns.
