The Marmot’s Hole

Prostitution seems to have made its ugly way not only into the main post but also the comment sections of Marmot’s Hole (is that a sexual innuendo?).  I realize that this fine blog is of the highest moral standards so I will keep this post as clean as possible.  In the spirit of history: Choson version of the oldest profession.

In 1876 Sir H. Parkes, the British representative in Japan, wrote to the Home Office to tell them about the Japanese delegation’s trip to Korea.  Amongst his information about the relatively unknown country he noted an amazing generalization.  According to a member of the delegation: in Korea “all natural sons become priests and daughters prostitutes.”  Parkes naturally admitted that he could not verify the truth of the statement, but it is one of those early misperceptions that has always stuck with me.

Prostitution in Korea has always existed - just as it has in every country in the world.  The first Western doctor to dwell in Korea, Horace Allen, considered the Koreans as being over-sexed.  They often had concubines, second wives, and visited houses of poor repute.  But these houses of poor repute, at least prior to the opening of the ports to Japan and the West were generally small and individually owned and operated.  They were generally situated on the village or city’s outskirts near the main road.  A visitor to Pusan wrote about his experiences in The North China Herald in March 1883:

“Brothels with several inmates do not exist.  Of course the social evil prevails in the Hermit Country as it does in every other country, but the women live by themselves in their own houses.”

The same visitor noted that the Japanese maintained a free hospital for Koreans and that “diseases of the most virulent type rages among them (Koreans).”  Dr. Allen also noted that venereal diseases were widespread.  He was convinced that the class of “dancing girls” were responsible for the wide-spread of syphilis and gonorrhea.

“Victims of sexual excess have frequently presented themselves, and them seemed to know that their troubles were due to their own irregularities, yet they would not acknowledge that their imprudence amounted to what would be considered over-indulgence from a European standpoint.”

There were also male prostitutes - dancers and performers, usually young teen boys, who played the roles of women - but we will not get into that subject on this post.

Later, a British diplomat noted that the Korean dancing girls were “usually slaves; they are well treated, and very modest in their behaviour.  The indecent games of the Japanese are not placed in Corea.” 

When Chemulpo was opened to the West it was nothing more than a handful of small rude huts.  The Japanese began building European/Japanese hybrid buildings and as more and more people arrived, began importing “entertainment” from the home islands.  Many of the early missionaries were appalled at the low morals of their fellow countrymen and that of the Japanese - but no matter how much they moaned about it - they could not get rid of it.

During the British occupation of Port Hamilton - young Wade (believe that is his name - don’t have my notes here with me - a British sailor - drowned while he and his companions sneaked  out of their camp and made their way to a Japanese fisherman’s camp - one Japanese man and a bevy of Japanese women.  Young Wade’s pockets were full of silver dollars - (I am pretty sure he wasn’t trying to buy fish…well maybe he was) and they and the fact that he could not swim well were his undoing.

Even the Russian lumber camp on the Yalu River had Japanese working women.  Their numbers fluctuated but even the last couple of months before the Russo-Japanese war there were Japanese prostitutes there.

Many of the diplomats and Westerners in Seoul had their own Japanese “girls.”  These girls were not so much prostitutes as they were similar to the girls that “yobo-up” with the GIs in the military towns now.  It was a running joke amongst them when one of the girls had a gift sent to her “john” or ”sugar-daddy,” but because her pronunciation was so bad the gift was instead sent to the wrong “john” whose wife did not at all find it funny.  The consul-general of the American Legation in Seoul had a relationship with his little Japanese plum that resulted in an unplanned baby.  The baby only lived a few years and was buried at Yanghwajin’s Foreign Cemetery (but one can only wonder how long that grave will remain there now that the cemetery is under the control of a church with its own agenda). 

Many of the Western gold miners had Japanese girls that sometimes decided to up and leave when they thought they could get more money at another camp.  One young girl, only about 18, had a huge fair-skinned, red-haired baby girl - the result of her many months at a gold mine outside Suan in 1907.  She and her “sugar daddy” could not get along because she thought she could get more money with someone else and he thought she was nuts and a certified psycho.  A woman with a large baby probably wasn’t too popular in the camps and so she returned home (Nagasaki), but stayed there for only a short time before returning to Korea.  It seems that her neighbors and parents did not view her return very well.  They said something to the effect that all the other girls return to Japan with money, but all she did was return with a big white baby.  There is a happy ending to this - to an extent - she did return to Korea and her “sugar daddy” agreed to take her back, and they were going to marry.  Unfortunately he died of a stroke shortly after her return.

And to wrap this up - ginseng is not the only thing Kaesong is known for - evidently the girls were pretty and naive.  This is from The Independent - the first English newspaper in Korea.  It is dated September 10, 1896.

“The wife of Pak Won Sun of Chemulpo enticed a young girl from Song-do and kept her in a house of ill fame in Chemulpo.  The girl was shocked when she found out the purpose of her betrayer, and made complaint to the Police Department.  The Police arrested Park’s wife.”