From the Ashes of War New Lives Were Born
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Summer Olympics 1988

The 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul reintroduced a triumphant and modern South Korea to the world. For many Korean adoptees whose only images of Korea had been from the television show M*A*S*H, it was their first glimpse of their birth country. "The first night the Games were on," recalled Sara Sager who was adopted as an infant in 1971, "and I saw all the girls dancing in hanboks (traditional Korean dresses) it was just like 'wow'. A chill went through me and at that moment it felt so special to be Korean. I was proud. And I never had seen so many Koreans together in one place." The Summer Olympics also brought shame and criticism of Korea's international Adoption. Bryant Gumble's expose juxtaposed a wealthy nation "exporting" their children. In response the South Korean government enacted a policy in 1989 to begin terminal of international adoptions, with the goal of limiting overseas adoptions to only mixed race and handicapped children.

By the 1980s more Korean adoptees began returning to Korea, either through motherland tours established by adoption agencies, or independently. Tom Teska, who was adopted at the age of four in 1970, returned to Korea to study the Korean language for the first time prior to his junior year at college and stayed for a year. "I went because I was curious," he said in a phone interview. "I went to do some soul searching about who I was. I had conflicts with my [adoptive] family at the time. I didn't feel like I fit in into being American and thought if I went to Korea they would welcome me with open arms." He chuckles. "I thought I was going to get red carpet service because I was Korean-American. It was a rude awakening for me. It was a different kind of racism because I was Korean but not totally Korean. So I didn't fit in there either. It was good that I went because I learned a lot about who I was and who I thought I was."

Lessons Learned

Today many adoptees are traveling to Korea to experience their birth culture, either through tours, to study the Korean language, teach English or live. Many are actively seeking their birth parents, a prospect that for many was never thought possible. Unlike the first generation of Korean adoptees, the Korean adoptees who are now in their twenties and thirties are finding support from each other by forming organizations and connecting over the internet. Buoyed by rising national Asian and Korean identity, these young professionals are striving to define their own unique individualities.

In 1996, the South Korean Ministry released "The Special Law on Adoption Promotion and Procedure," which was aimed at promoting domestic adoptions but did not mention any plans to remove intercountry adoption practice. The 1998 Asian Financial crisis as economic bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) destroyed many South Korean families, giving rise to divorces due to economic difficulties. Many parents, unable to take care of their children, have brought their children to orphanages.

International adoptions from Korea have continued for four decades in part because of the strong relationship between American and other charitable organizations that opened orphanages in Korea, the continued instability of the Korean economy, the reality that Korean couples are not adopting, and the fact that South Korea has not established a sound domestic child welfare policy in response to the large number of abandoned and orphaned children.

Today two generations of Korean born adoptees can attest to the successes and failures of international and transcultural adoptions.

May the lessons be learned.

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