Asian Women in the Eyes of Americans Essay example -- Asian Studies Res

Introduction The history of Asian women has many facets. I am about to touch on two key monumental points over a sixty year span that have shaped the views of Asian women in the eyes of Americans. As a brief overview, from as early as the 1940s, Asian women were recruited to serve their soldiers during World War II as sex slaves. Forty years later, the dawning of the 1980s brought about the desire of Asian women into American households and sparked the mail order bride phenomenon. The beginning of a new century has altered the lives of Asian women, in parts of Asia as well as in the United States of America. I will give you a glimpse into their every day lives in their home country and site observations to their strides into the American workforce today. Let me unveil the lives of Asian women . . . past, present, and future. Comfort Women During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women from all parts of Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army to â€Å"serve† soldiers on the front lines. These poor young women, generally known as â€Å"comfort women†, were recruited, kidnapped, sold, enticed, and deceived with the promise of well-paying jobs to serve their soldiers. Eighty percent of the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 â€Å"comfort women† of WWII were Korean girls and women. These unfortunate victims were stationed in â€Å"comfort stations† throughout Asia and the South Pacific. Prisoners in these stations were subject to daily degrations such as physical and verbal abuse, repeated rapes, hard labor, and sometimes murder. The women drafted as â€Å"comfort women† had a regimented schedule. To much astonishment, each women had to serve twenty to forty men a day at a rate of a man every t... ...l reach the same level of respect in another sixty years. The past and present lives of Asian women have been unveiled, now I am anxious to see what the future reveals. Works Cited Kumar, Nita, ed. Women As Subjects. United States: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Lee, Rose J., and Clark, Cal, ed. Democracy and the Status of Women in East Asia. United States: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2000. Stetz, Margaret, and Oh, Bonnie B.C., ed. Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II. United States: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001. â€Å"Tajik Forum Urges Laws on Violence Against Central Asian Women.† Global News Wire. 2003. 27 November 2003. (LexisNexis) â€Å"Why I Recommend Asian Women.† 2003. 05 December 2003. http://www.heart-of-asia.org/gen/whyasia.html â€Å"Women of Color Make Big Strides in the Workforce.† Star Tribune. 2003. 01 August 2003. (LexisNexis) Asian Women in the Eyes of Americans Essay example -- Asian Studies Res Introduction The history of Asian women has many facets. I am about to touch on two key monumental points over a sixty year span that have shaped the views of Asian women in the eyes of Americans. As a brief overview, from as early as the 1940s, Asian women were recruited to serve their soldiers during World War II as sex slaves. Forty years later, the dawning of the 1980s brought about the desire of Asian women into American households and sparked the mail order bride phenomenon. The beginning of a new century has altered the lives of Asian women, in parts of Asia as well as in the United States of America. I will give you a glimpse into their every day lives in their home country and site observations to their strides into the American workforce today. Let me unveil the lives of Asian women . . . past, present, and future. Comfort Women During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women from all parts of Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army to â€Å"serve† soldiers on the front lines. These poor young women, generally known as â€Å"comfort women†, were recruited, kidnapped, sold, enticed, and deceived with the promise of well-paying jobs to serve their soldiers. Eighty percent of the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 â€Å"comfort women† of WWII were Korean girls and women. These unfortunate victims were stationed in â€Å"comfort stations† throughout Asia and the South Pacific. Prisoners in these stations were subject to daily degrations such as physical and verbal abuse, repeated rapes, hard labor, and sometimes murder. The women drafted as â€Å"comfort women† had a regimented schedule. To much astonishment, each women had to serve twenty to forty men a day at a rate of a man every t... ...l reach the same level of respect in another sixty years. The past and present lives of Asian women have been unveiled, now I am anxious to see what the future reveals. Works Cited Kumar, Nita, ed. Women As Subjects. United States: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Lee, Rose J., and Clark, Cal, ed. Democracy and the Status of Women in East Asia. United States: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2000. Stetz, Margaret, and Oh, Bonnie B.C., ed. Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II. United States: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001. â€Å"Tajik Forum Urges Laws on Violence Against Central Asian Women.† Global News Wire. 2003. 27 November 2003. (LexisNexis) â€Å"Why I Recommend Asian Women.† 2003. 05 December 2003. http://www.heart-of-asia.org/gen/whyasia.html â€Å"Women of Color Make Big Strides in the Workforce.† Star Tribune. 2003. 01 August 2003. (LexisNexis)