International Adoption in the Korean War

Introduction

The Korean War was a battle between North Korea and South Korea between 25th June 1950 and 27^th July 1953. The Korean War is considered to be the first military operation that was witnessed during the Cold War. The most notable event of the Korean War was when approximately seventy-five thousand soldiers from North Korea crossed the 38^th parallel, which was the boundary between the North and the South. The Soviets highly backed North Korea because they shared the same economic and political ideology of communism while the South was pro-Western. By July of 1950, American troops joined the war to support South Korea (Woo, 2019). According to the Americans, who were very serious about their capitalist plan, this was a war against the spread of communism internationally. At first, the battle began as a form of defensive strategy by the South, but it pushed on, and during the years that it was fought, there were back and forth scuffles across the 38^th parallel with no nation gaining a foothold or showing signs of victory. All in all, the number of casualties of war still increased.

American officials involved in the war were working behind the scenes to form some truce with the North Koreans because of the impending probability of a conflict with Chinese and Russian forces (Kim, 2021). When the war ended, close to five million lives had been lost, including civilians and soldiers. As the war progressed, the most affected party were children. They did not understand what was going on, and they were casualties at every turn. America, therefore, had to step in and try to help these children through the concept of international adoption. Thus, in this paper, we shall discuss why the idea of international adoption was important during and after the Korean War and, by doing this, learn about the lives that were saved in the “forgotten war” (Neville & Rotabi, 2020). For this paper, I will introduce international adoption and link it to the Korean War. Then, I will discuss why it was important for the concept to be implemented and its effects as experienced to date.

International Adoption

International Adoption can be defined as a type of adoption in which individuals, couples, or even governments adopt a child from a country that is not the one they come from by using permanent legal means. After the process is done, the child is then taken from their original country to the one that the individuals, couples, or governments belong to live there permanently. International adoption is one of the best options for children in need of permanent homes. This serves the child’s best interests and when all other solutions from their home country have been given due consideration (Lee, 2018). This was when America decided to pursue international adoption for children during the Korean War.

Reasons why the Concept of International Adoption was implemented

• No Adults to Care for the Children

One of the reasons why the Americans extensively pursued international adoption during the Korean War was because these children needed to be saved. Most men from South Korea were involved in the war as either soldiers or officers, and therefore they were not present to take care of their young ones back at home (Lee, 2018). Also, with men off to war, women who relied on them lacked a source of income, so they too abandoned the children and left for military camps where most were involved in taking care of the wounded, selling foodstuff, and some were even involved in prostitution. Due to this, many children were left homeless and starved to death. The Americans saw that without help, most of the children would eventually die, so they stepped in to try and help them.

• The War Situation

The war did not help things either. Instead, it made the situation even harder for the children living close to where the war was being fought. Because of all the fighting, these geographical regions posed a considerable threat to the lives of the children, and most of them ended up being casualties of the war. These deaths were senseless because the children had no part in the Korean War. Some might even say they were confused about the situation (Kim, 2021). They didn’t know whether to run or hide, and they did not have the strength to fight back. The American government got involved in providing these children with a safe place to live, grow, and develop their minds. They believed that the children were far too young to be exposed to such a war that might impact them negatively.

Effects of International Adoption

In conclusion, international adoption forms part socially integrated system where relationships are created by members of society from different parts of the world. Some of the effects of adoption include children being taken to safer environments where they are provided with basic needs. These children also received meaningful education that enabled them to transform their lives for the better (Woo, 2019). However, international adoption only did last up to a few years after the Korean War; as time progressed and conditions became more favorable for the children domestically, the adoption rate dropped.

References

Kim, E. (2021). The origins of Korean adoption: Cold War geopolitics and intimate diplomacy.

Lee, J. K. J. (2018). An adopter and the ends of adoption. Adoption & Culture, 6(2), 282-291.

Lee, S. C. (2018). Mother America: Cold War maternalism and the origins of Korean adoption. In Ethical Standards and Practice in International Relations (pp. 157-186). IGI Global.

Neville, S. E., & Rotabi, K. S. (2020). Developments in US intercountry adoption policy since its peak in 2004. Adoption Quarterly, 23(1), 63-83.

Woo, S. (2019). Framed by War. New York University Press.