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www.groovekorea.com / July 2014 30 Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com) COvER STORY In other parts of the neighborhood, a few pockets of Koreans began to congregate. The fact that Itaewon wasn’t respectable made it a draw for the free-spirited. Itaewon freedom in the 1960s and 1970s meant a place to hear rock ‘n’ roll, and a place to get high. According to a 2013 article by journalist Ja- son Strother for Yonhap News Agency, mar- ijuana was actually legal — or at least not illegal — in Korea until 1976. But very few Koreans knew what it was, and it’s assumed it was originally imported into the country by U.S. soldiers. Strother writes of Korean student Kim Woo- jin, who loved to smoke marijuana with his friends and listen to Shin Joong-hyun, Korean band Love and Peace and Simon and Gar- funkel. And then they’d all go to Itaewon. Kim says Itaewon “was the ‘mecca’ for Western music as well as marijuana,” Strother writes. Many clubs didn’t admit Koreans, even if they were technically allowed to, because they didn’t want confrontations — usually over women — between Korean men and GIs. But one part of Itaewon did admit young Korean men. Professor Kim Eun-shil writes about young students visiting Itaewon in the 1970s. “In or- der to have a good time in Itaewon, they had to speak some English, have some knowl- edge of music and be confident enough to say, ‘This is our country. I have the right to go where I want,’” Kim writes in the Korea Journal. “This kind of cultural and emotional capital was the backdrop against which it was possible to enjoy long hair, marijuana and rock, all of which were considered deviant by the average Korean.” Gay Koreans, Kim says, probably start- ed coming to Itaewon in the 1970s as well, though the scene was still underground. “But even before there were gay bars in Itaewon, some Korean gay men went to Itaewon, hop- ing to meet homosexuals among the Amer- ican soldiers, tourists or others,” writes Kim. Korea’s Muslims also began gathering in Itaewon at this time. President Park Chung- hee donated the land near the top of Texas Street to the Islamic community in Seoul, and Seoul Central Mosque opened on May 21, 1976. It is now one of Itaewon’s most distinc- tive landmarks. According to Imam Abdul Rahman Lee, the land was donated there because the Kore- an government wanted to improve relations between South Korea and Muslim countries — particularly the Gulf states, which supplied most of Korea’s oil. “Itaewon was a gathering place for foreigners, even then,” Lee says. Itaewon’s proximity to the embassies of many Islamic countries was a key reason it was built on that land. Though there were only 3,000 to 4,000 Muslims in Korea in the ‘70s, the establishment of the mosque would portend changes in the future. On Yongsan Garrison, near what’s now the Hyatt Hotel, Itaewon’s small number of Jews had also started worshipping. But this facility was located on-base, so someone had to sign you in — usually the Jewish chaplain. Japanese tourists also started coming in the 1970s as visa restrictions eased and the Ko- rean government started hankering for Japa- nese yen. Japanese sex tours started to come around Itaewon and elsewhere. There were 217,278 Japanese visitors to Korea in 1972, according to “The Transforma- tion of Sexual Work in 20th-Century Korea,” (1995) a paper by John Lie. By 1978, the number had tripled to 667,319. In 1976, 98 percent of male Japanese tourists were unac- companied by women. “According to a Korean government ministry poll in 1973, 80 percent of Japanese tourists listed ‘gisaeng party’ as their most memorable experience in Korea,” Lie writes. The gisaeng houses were traditional-style houses of pros- titution, similar to Japanese geisha houses. They were set up to cater to foreign men, and were promoted by the government, especially in Japan, where Korean “brothel tours” were commonly sold. Korea Church Women United estimated there were 100,000 women involved in broth- el tours in 1978. By 1983, it had tripled to 300,000. However, it’s unclear how many of these brothels were in Itaewon. But Itaewon largely remained the place for GIs. In 1976, Tom Casey opened the Sports- man’s Club, three doors down from the Itae- won Stairs, while he was still a soldier. By 1980 it was the place to be. (Opening the club while still on duty did not make him popular with the U.S. Congress. Says Casey, “(Con- gress) said, ‘We’ve got GIs opening fuckin’ nightclubs in Korea? What the hell’s going on over there?’” But he had retired by the time Congress got wind of it.) The ‘mecca’ for music and marijuana