Mother America: Cold War Maternalism and the Origins of Korean Adoption

Background

Described as a “hermit nation,” (Dr. Bob Pierce, as cited in Wagner, 1956), Korea was a “poor and primitive country” with towns that were “sordid and dirty,” and homes that were “hovel-like” (Wagner, 1956, p. 1). Agencies attempting to help the children left abandoned or deserted after the war had to deal with a complete lack of social welfare. As Far East Representative Florence Boester (1957) reported, there was “inadequacy of feeding, housing, and medical facilities; lack of trained leadership; maddening difficulties in the means of communication and travel; absence of coordinated social resources” (p. 4). The families of the birth mothers of mixed-blood Korean children had deserted them. According to Valk (1956), “Missionaries who work up near the 38^th parallel where there are stationed many foreign servicemen describe the woods being full of girls with such children” (p. 3). The children were described as animal-like. They were “dirty, untrained, and not properly fed” (Pettiss, 1955c, p. 1). American assistance was desperately needed.