U.S. military camptown prostitution in South Korea was a system ridden with entangled structures of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. This thesis aims to elucidate the ways in which racial ideologies, in conjunction with gendered nationalist ideologies, materialized in the spaces of military base communities. I contend that camptowns were hybrid spaces where the meaning and representation of race were constantly in flux, where the very definitions of race and gender were contested, affirmed, and redefined through ongoing negotiations on the part of relevant actors. The reading of camptown prostitutes and American GIs as sexualized and racialized bodies will provide a nuanced understanding of the power dynamics unique to camptown communities. The first part of this study consists of a discussion of Korean ethnic nationalism and its complementary relation to U.S. racial ideologies. Denied of an ethnonational identity, camptown prostitutes denationalized themselves by rejecting Korean patriarchy and resorting to White American masculinity to craft a new self-identity. Another component of this thesis involves American GIs and their racialized self-identities. Recognizing American soldiers as products of a specific political and social context, I argue that military camptowns were largely conceived as spaces of normalized abnormality that provided a ripe opportunity to challenge existing social, economic, racial, and sexual norms.

The purpose of this research is to explore the impact of America’s influence on Japanese women’s efforts to obtain equal rights. America’s role in various Japanese women’s rights groups and movements has been the subject of essays and theses in the past, yet the topic is generally centered specifically on the period during the American occupation following World War II in 1945. This paper aims to take a broader look at Japanese Women’s Rights efforts before and after the war to garner a better understanding of the ways in which the American influence aided in the development of the movement. Japanese women have fought for their rights without the aid of American influence, yet the relationship between the two has had benefits for both parties.

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A fictional retelling of the story of the woman warrior Mulan, set in China's Northern Wei Dynasty (386-536 CE), with focus on themes of personal identity, Sinicization, and cultural merging.

This thesis is motivated by a lack of studies on the history of mental illness in South Korea. It builds upon existing studies by historians Theodore Yoo and Bang Hyun Lee, who have also used newspapers to analyze the discourse surrounding mental illness during Colonial Korea (1910-1945). Specifically, I analyze newspapers in the decades following this period to revisit three themes that both Yoo and Lee noted about the colonial period: (1) the religious practice of hitting individuals with mental illnesses, (2) the strong support for the sterilization of people with mental illnesses, and (3) the association between crime and mental illness. Because the colonial period was when people with mental illnesses were increasingly treated as social outcasts, comparing shifts or continuances from the colonial period was useful in exploring the stigma attached to mental illness in Korea. The articles surrounding the first theme revealed that despite the stigma attached to Shamanistic practices of beating during the colonial period due to a growing biomedical understanding of mental illness, they surprisingly persisted. There were also new developments, in which people with mental illnesses were beaten, chained, and isolated in “treatment” institutions across the nation for no particular reason. Articles surrounding the second theme showed that though inflamed rhetoric surrounding sterilization operations were not found post-1950, rhetoric with eugenics undertones lingered. Newspapers reported on these inhumane practices until as late as 1999. For the third theme, this study finds that the press continued to strongly associate mental illness with crime. These associations that effectively equated individuals with mental illnesses to criminals still frequently occur in newspapers today, particularly with what the media calls “Don’t Ask” crimes. Based on these findings, this study discovers that the negative treatment and perception of people with mental illnesses persisted long beyond Colonial Korea. It also stresses the importance of examining the role the press plays in contributing to the stigma attached to mental illness and shaping the way mental illness is understood.

Through introduction of Fujian Province as home to the largest migrant population in the world, this article aims to address the negotiation of intersections between local and global forces that form new spaces throughout the diaspora. The "third space," a term coined by Homi Bhabha, addresses the fluid identity of Chinese-Filipino individuals that both acknowledges the traditional notions of "Chinese" while being influenced by a history of colonization in the Spanish Philippines. I incorporate my own personal experience as an American-born Chinese-Filipino navigating new spaces, and also the experience of my family members through interviews.

The essential objective of this study was to reveal the degree to which one man, Nicholas Muraviev, was instrumental in bringing about Russia's annexation of The Amur basin, as well as the territory that became the Maritime Province of Siberia. Introductory chapters provide: a) a background summary of Muraviev's education and of his career prior to his service in Siberia and b) a brief historical survey of the area in which his achievements raised Russia to the position of a Far Eastern Power. The main body of the study comprises an analytical narrative of Muraviev's activities during the decade that culminated in the Chinese capitulation at Aigun in 1858. Closing chapters explain the factors that turned the newly acquired territories into a burden for the Russian Government until it decided to build the trans-Siberian railway, and set forth some conclusions regarding the historical significance of Muraviev's role as Russia's pro-consul in Eastern Siberia. Extensive use was made of the prime single source of information on Muraviev's life, Ivan Barsukov's Graf N. N. Muraviev-Amurskii, po ego pismam, ofitsialnym dokumentam, razskazam sovremmenikov it pechatnym istochnikam (materialy d1ia biografii). Also of significant assistance was the bibliography contained in J. L. Sullivan's doctoral dissertation, Count N. N. Muraviev-Amurskii, a full-scale biography. Sullivan's dissertation preceded two important works bearing on the Muraviev period in Siberia and drawn on extensively in the present study; R. K. I. Quested's The Expansion of Russia in East Asia, 1858-1860, and P. I. Kabanov's Amurskii Vopross. Among other particularly valuable sources was P. V. Schumacher's long article, K istorii priobretenia Amurai. Snoshenias Kitaem s 1848 po 1860 g.” contained in Russki Arkhiv, which, together with Russkaia Starina and Krasny Arkhiv, also contain numerous other documents, memoirs and contemporary accounts that were consulted. Of signal value, too, among the special studies, surveys and reference works consulted was the introductory chapter of Andrew Malozemoff's " Russian Far Eastern Policy, 1881-1904. A complete selected bibliography is included. The research undertaken for this study has led to the conclusion that had it not been for Muraviev's imagination and ingenuity, his willingness, on occasion, to flout authority and his dedication and extraordinary stamina, the annexation to Eastern Siberia of almost 400,000 square miles of territory might never have taken place. Muraviev was sometimes impatient, perhaps sometimes insufficiently impressed by broader politico-military considerations that dictated what he regarded as an inexcusably over-cautious attitude toward Russo-Chinese relations in St. Petersburg. He also tended to exaggerate the immediate benefits that would accrue to Russia once she acted boldly on the Amur. Yet the salient fact remains that it was the intensity with which he pursued his idee fixe, both with words and actions, the years of his methodical preparation, with minimal support from the Russian Government, that made it possible for that Government to nullify the Treaty of Nerchinsk and to extend the Russian Empire's realms on the Pacific's shores down to the Korean frontier. It took important external factors, such as the Crimean War, and the resulting replacement of Muraviev's nemesis, Nesselrode, and his clique, with more capable and far sighted officials, to bring Muraviev's plans to fruition. But to say this is simply to say that the authorities in St. Petersburg, viewing the confluence of events on the international scene, finally recognized that in Muraviev they had the right man at the right place at the right time.

The memory of the battle of Okinawa was shaped by politics. The memory of the battle for Okinawans emphasizes war crimes committed against them and the devastating impact that was inflicted upon their peaceful island. Their emphasis on sole victimization led to other Okinawan narratives being either downplayed or outright denied. To remove American bases off their island, gain recognition for Japanese atrocities plus reparations, the Okinawans portrayed themselves as a peaceful people that were the sole victims of the battle of Okinawa. The United States glossed over the crimes committed by the Japanese on Okinawa and Asia to use Japan as a bulwark against what they perceived as communist aggression in Asia. To solidify this new alliance, the United States promoted reconciliation instead of punishment. In doing so, they willingly forget atrocities committed by the Japanese against Asian nationals. Americans also remember the battle in conjunction with the dropping of two atomic bombs and to justify their morally superior position to the Soviet Union, promote a more complex picture of the decision to use the bombs. This included discussing how Okinawa changed the American leader’s perspectives on a mainland Japan invasion. As a result, has become increasingly difficult to separate Okinawa and the bombs because of their temporal closeness. The Japanese tend to remember the battle as a heroic last stand and emphasize sacrifice to inspire future generations partly out of fear that Japanese youth have gone soft, ultimately demonstrating that Japan has not fully come to terms with her memory of the Second World War.

Between 1938 and 1940 approximately 18,000 Jews from Central Europe went to the Chinese city of Shanghai to escape Nazi persecution. While almost every nation in the world refused to accept these desperate refugees, thousands found refuge in Japanese occupied Shanghai, which was an open port and one could immigrate there with no visa or passport. In an incredibly short period of time the refugees were able to develop a vibrant Jewish community. Relying primarily on the testimony of former refugees, this thesis seeks to address three main questions: What did exile in Shanghai feel like for the refugees? How did they handle and react to the circumstances of their new surroundings? In what ways did their common exile unite the group and bring about changes in personal identity?

This thesis focuses on the commercialization of Chinese medicine in the post-Mao era, from 1977 to 2014. It looks at its social and environmental impact on local rural areas.