Scrapping By: Gender and Race in US Military Waste Collection in East Asia

On January 30, 1957, Sakai Naka, a 46-year-old Japanese woman, was fatally shot by a U.S. soldier while collecting shell casings at the Somagahara Air Base in Gunma. This event, known as the "Girard Incident," sparked nationwide protests in Japan, prompting President Eisenhower to withdraw forty percent of U.S. troops stationed in the country. Despite its diplomatic significance, Sakai's death and her underlying motivations for collecting casings have been largely neglected in the literature. This paper aims to investigate the overlooked aspects of Sakai's death and the broader issues surrounding the gendered and racial politics of waste collection–including scrap metal, gunpowder from unexploded shells, and empty shell casings—near U.S. military bases across East Asia.

After the end of WWII, the U.S. military in East Asia offered economic opportunities for women and minority groups, and the collection of scrap metal and military waste emerged as a crucial means of survival for marginalized communities. In 1950s Japan, for instance, government regulation around scavenging was used to police and surveil ethnic minority Korean Zainichis as it was estimated that one in ten Korean residents relied on scrapmetal for their livelihood. In the Ryukyu Islands under US military administration during the Korean War, local Okinawans were authorized to scavenge near garbage facilities, leading to what was termed the "scrap boom” and resulting in a series of fatal accidents. In other parts of East Asia, such as Hong Kong during the Vietnam War, collecting military waste from U.S. carriers was vital for women’s survival, especially among orphaned girls. Mary Soo, dubbed the “Queen of Garbage,” capitalized on this relationship by exchanging cleaning services for waste. Through these case studies, this paper illuminates how dependence on military waste became essential for women's post-war survival, while also heightening their vulnerability.