Base Money

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses how US military payment certificates (MPC) escaped from US military bases during the Korean War to become common currency in local economies. The MPC program was intended to control the mixing of US currency in local economies, yet the worldwide use of MPC on all overseas US bases between 1946 and 1973 facilitated black market circulation of military notes globally by allowing trading differentials among dollars, MPC, and local currencies. As soldiers, goods, and money moved through the US base network across Korea and Japan during the war, MPC were commonly used as a medium of exchange for sexual transactions between US soldiers and local women in both countries. The cross-border sexual markets were central to the everyday economies of Korea and Japan, of which black markets trading US Army supplies and currencies were major components. An analysis of this off-base monetization process of MPC offers a new perspective on the global history of war and occupation by highlighting how the sexual economy of illicit and informal transactions has been integral to US military expansion abroad since the end of World War II.