<論文>GIとつきあうおんなたち : 占領期日本における「オンリー・ワン」

Abstract

本論は、占領期の日本をあらゆるひとたちが相互交渉し対処する場を、｢コンタクト・ゾーン｣としてみる。それはたんに、勝者米国が敗者日本を統治したというだけではなく、日本のおんなたちとGI(米兵)が対等に相互交渉をおこなっているということを明らかにする。とりわけ本論では、1人のGIと関わる、｢オンリー｣や｢オンリー・ワン｣と呼ばれていたおんなたちに注目する。具体的には、占領期に京都社会福祉研究所が調査した、26名のおんなたちの口述記録を考察する。彼女たちは、GIと性的な関係を持ったという理由で性病検診を強制的に受けさせられたおんなたちである。彼女たちは｢高級街娼｣とみなされ、「オンリー・ワン」と分類された。さらに本論では、さまざまなおんなたちがお互いに助け合う可能性についても論じる。とりわけ、占領期に実施された強制的性病検診を受けるために待つ空間であった、病院の待合室に注目する。病院の待合室はGHQや日本政府がおんなたちの間に｢分断支配｣[Enloe 2000 ; エンロー 2006]を持ち込もうとする空間であるからだ。本来、あらゆる立場を超えておんなたちが、一斉検挙という暴力に対して互いに手を結ぶことができるにもかかわらず、当局側の｢分断支配｣によって被害を受けているおんなたち同士が互いに反目しあう状況が生み出される。だがコンタクト・ゾーンという視点で彼女たちとGIたちとの関係に注目すると、エンローの｢分断支配｣も、彼女たちを調査した研究員たちのように一義的な力関係を前提とする分析にすぎないことがわかる。彼女たちは、これまでの既存の枠組みでは分析できないおんなたちである。｢規範｣のものさしで彼女たちを測ることをやめたとき、彼女たちのことをもっと理解することができるだろう。

In this paper, I regard Japan during the occupation period as what I would like to term a "contact zone" where people of all kinds negotiated and had had dealings with each other. It was not merely a case of the victorious Americans governing the defeated Japanese. I will demonstrate that women in Japan negotiated with GIs(American Soldiers) on an equal footing. Tanaka [2011a], following Pratt [1992], describes "contact zones" as sites where people of different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds come into contact with each other. Tanaka regards Japan during the American Occupation as a contact zone and has acutely established various discourses of Japanese intellects, activists, women and children in place of a simple category of streetwalkers. My research has led me to examine the oral reports of 26 women that have been published by the Kyoto Institute for Social Welfare. These are all women who had been forced to undergo examinations for the detection of venereal disease(VD, on account of having had sexual relations with GIs as their girlfriends and lovers. They were regarded as "High-priced Streetwalkers" and categorized as "Only Ones" by the Kyoto Institute because they were regarded by the institute as women who had had sex in exchange for money or goods with only one member of the American military personnel. The main scholars of the institute define "Only Ones" as women who are careless with money and voluptuary. In addition, scholars also write, as a definition, that these women have no interest in social economy, depend on the GIs, and prefer licentiously sexual lifestyles. Such a definition is based upon the notion that the "Only Ones" and GI's can't negotiate with each other. However, regarding the relations between "Only Ones" and GIs, it is clear that their relationships are complicated and of multiple natures- "Only Ones" don’t quite depend on GIs, nor do they do nothing. In this paper, I consider contact zones as sites during the Occupation period in Japan that can be categorized according to the following three purposes: lodgings where women could have contact with GIs; interview rooms where women had contact with investigators, and hospital waiting rooms where various women could have contact with each other. Moreover, I consider the possibility that women in various circumstances could help and support each other from this point of view of contact zones. Especially, I pay attention to waiting rooms in hospitals where women were forced to undergo VD examinations. The hospital waiting room is one of the spaces where GHQ and the Japanese Government attempted to use "divisive efforts"( Enloe 2000) to separate the women. Enloe (2000) notes, "there are very few instances in any country of military wives joining in an alliance with military prostitutes and together devising a joint action along with women soldiers." Enloe adds that "Government officials have been remarkably successful in these divisive efforts." Women can essentially find unity among themselves against the unfair violence of roundups in various ways. Nevertheless, they were confronted together by the "divisive efforts" of the authorities. Some women, however, don’t become involved in such "divisive efforts." As I demonstrate in sections 3 and 4 of the paper, it is unclear which women are street girls or just lovers, and each of them has a different meaning in regard to the term "Only Ones." They are able to have relationships with GIs both as street girls and not as street girls, thus such women can help and support each other in the waiting spaces. When we pay attention to these relationships between the women and GIs from the viewpoint of contact zones, Enloe's "divisive efforts" is also a framework for assessing this situation from the point of view of simple power relationships. Focusing on their oral histories carefully, we can see that women come to the front. Women such as "Only Ones" are women whom we cannot easily analyze. If we use superficial analyses, we cannot understand and appreciate their experiences. In order to approach what these women experienced, it is necessary that we are ready to give up stereotypes and old frameworks which have been used in the past. When we stop judging them from fixed rulers, we may notice that we can understand them more.