vatae kimlee

1-3 Post Exchange


what is post exchange? 

Post exchange is a retail store on an army installation that sells goods and services to military personnel and their dependents and to certain authorized civilian personnel. : PX 5



how did PX in Korea changed throughout time and why are you interested? 


    The first PX emplaced in Korea was inside of the US Military Government Building on October 16th, 1945. The US used the building where Japan used it as the Japanese General Government Building during the colonization of Korea. 

    One of the buildings that the U.S. military used as Seoul PX was the building that Japan built as a department store. Department stores, considered as a “flower of capitalism”, first opened in Korea around mid 1920s, by Japanese colonial rule. The building was a symbol of transplanted modernity.  Such buildings were also used as “exhibition halls” that displayed “modernized and culturalized” life.

The picture of Mitsukoshi department store that was opened at Seoul in 1930, during Japanese colonisation. 



The picture of Seoul PX during U.S. Governing of Korea. The U.S. military used  Mitsukoshi department store building
The building is now used as a department store called “shinsegae”. It is owned by Samsung 
    When the US used a department store as PX, American products displayed in the department store window became objects of curiosity and envy among Koreans who suffered from chronic material shortages. The sentence below is a paragraph from Park Wan-suh’s novel 『Was the Mountain Really There? 』 that describes the admiration that Koreans had for the United States.

Lucky Strike, Kamel cigarettes, Milky Way chocolate, Lux soap, Nabisco biscuits, Charms candy, Pond's cream, Colgate toothpaste, and other American products gathered in shiny and colorful on the stalls were eye candies. It aroused unconditional admiration for the United States. These small stalls, which looked like flower fields out of nowhere in a shabby market, were symbols of America's wealth and culture. 6

    The reason I am interested in the PX is that it shows how capitalism and modernism was introduced to Korea. Showing off the “good life” formed the admiration of “modernized and culturalized” life. It was such an effective way to deceive people. Korea has become one of the wealthiest countries due to the hard work and help of the U.S. However, it is also one of the countries with the highest suicide rate.

5. POST EXCHANGE Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
6. Park Wan-suh , 『Was the Mountain Really There? 』, 1995