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Our history began on Sunday June 25th, 1950. The first clash of
the cold war erupted as the North Korean People's Army crossed south
of the 38th prallel in the early pre-dawn. Korea was thrown into
a civil war that would keep the small nation divided for decades,
tear apart famlies, and make enemies out of brothers. But in the
mist of the horrors of the war, a new option for orphaned and abandoned
children of Korea was born. It was not until after the First and
Second World Wars and the appeal of rescuing children from war torn
European countries, that adoption became more popularize and America
passed or revived adoption laws. However, it was not until after
the Korean War and the moral obligation felt by some Americans to
the mixed race Korean and American children born and left by the
occupying army, that the first legislation was pased and intercountry
adoptions occurred with significance. After the scars of war began
to heal, the adoption of Korean children by western countries continued.
Today it is estimated that more that 100,466 Korean-born adoptees
entered the United States between 1995 and 1998, and an estimated
140,735 worldwide. Almost fifty years after the Korean conflict,
thousands of children from all over Asia, Latin-America, Africa
and Europe are adopted by families through out the world.
Veterans of War
Korean civilians could not avoid the war that ravageed their country
and dominated the peninsula for three long years. "My most
vivid memories from Korea as a young boy," recalled Thomas
Park Clement, a mixed white and Korean orphan during the war, "were
feeling my stomach shake from the percussion of bomb blasts, gun
fire, army trucks, wounded people everywhere, flashing bombs lighting
the dark skies, people crying, people running, being carried on
the back of someone, and being cold and hungry."
Some children were lost by their parents during the overwhelming
confusion of the fighting, others were intentionally abandonded
by unwed mothers who could not care for them. Som were left on street
corners or police stations or in parks to be found. Orphanages were
quickly overcrowded with children left by birthparents, relatives
and missionaries. The condition of post-war Korea was horrendous.
Over 10% of the pre-war population had died. "I was a combat
soldier in the Korean War and I was very used to death," an
emotional Arthur W. Wilson, a veteran and editor of the book Faces
of War: Korean Vignettes (Artwork Publications; 1996), recalled.
"But I could never get used to seeing all of the hungry kids."
He paused as his voice crackled with feeling. "We tried to
save them every way we could do fighting a war. It was so hard.
As a result many soldiers after they returned home adopted kids
from Korea. You [adoptees] are veterans of the Korean War."
Another Korean War veteran Thomas Nuzzo, remembered holding a little
boy named Tommy. "His mother was Korean and his father was
American. His eyes were blue and his hair blond; his eyes were Asian."
He still had the photo taken of himself smiling and holding the
baby in the samll village of Sam Bat, four kilometers south of Chunchon
city in 1954. "I always wonder what happened to him. They say
that life was very rough for 'mixed' children in those days.
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