Base Towns: Local Contestation of the U.S. Military in Korea and Japan

When do we see social movements against the American military overseas, and what explains their varying intensity? Despite increasing interest in the global network of U.S. military bases on foreign soil, we still do not understand why some host communities mobilize against the American bases in their backyards, while others remain compliant. This book addresses this puzzle by investigating the contentious politics surrounding twenty U.S. military bases across Korea and Japan—faithful U.S. allies and two of the largest U.S. base hosts in the world. In particular, it looks at municipalities hosting these bases and differing levels of community acceptance and resistance over time. Drawing on fieldwork interviews, participant observation, and protest event data (2000–2015), the book shows that activists in base towns successfully build broad-based anti-base movements when they (1) take advantage of quotidian disruption (i.e., major changes at these bases); (2) adopt culturally resonant—but surprisingly mundane—protest frames; and (3) ally with local political elites. These activist strategies, however, sometimes end up reinforcing the widely presumed inevitability of the American presence. Ultimately, this book sheds light on marginalized actors in international politics—far removed from elite decision-making processes that shape interstate base politics, and yet living with their consequences—who sometimes manage to complicate the operations of America’s military behemoth. In doing so, the book also reminds readers that American military bases overseas, often discussed in the rather abstract terms of American power projection, have concrete local and human consequences.