SINCE SEPTEMBER 1945 when the 24th Army Corps, consisting of some 70,000 soldiers and led by General John R. Hodge, arrived to accept the transfer of power over Korea from the Japanese empire, U.S. soldiers stationed on military bases have had a significant presence in Korean society. With the formal independence of South Korea, the number of U.S. personnel was reduced to 22,823 in 1948, and the withdrawal of occupation forces began on June 30, 1949. (1) Soon, however, the Korean War turned the peninsula back into a zone of protracted military confrontation. According to a Korean nongovernmental organization (NGO), 101 military facilities, including fifty camps, entangle the ...