Where Babies Came From: Korea and the Invention of the System
Modern intercountry adoption began after the Korean War, when an Oregon evangelical couple, a Nobel-winning novelist, U.S. immigration exceptions, and a Korean government wanting to remove mixed-race children built the first organized pipeline. Korea ran it for decades, sending roughly 200,000 children abroad. In 2025 its own truth commission found the state responsible for falsified records, missing consent, and switched identities.
Who's who
- Harry Holt+1 more episodeOregon farmer and lumberman who pioneered proxy adoption and baby airlifts
- Bertha Holt+1 more episodeCo-founder of the Holt Adoption Program in 1956
- Pearl S. BuckNobel laureate novelist and advocate for mixed-race children; founded Welcome House
- Syngman RheeSouth Korea's first president; his government founded the Child Placement Service
- Park Sun Young+1 more episodeChaired South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Sang Hoon Lee+1 more episodeCommission investigator who called its report "half-baked"
- Arissa OhScholar; author of To Save the Children of Korea
- Eleana KimAnthropologist; author of Adopted Territory
Where it happens
- Creswell, Oregon, United StatesHome of Harry and Bertha Holt
- South Korea+2 more episodesSent roughly 200,000 children abroad over about fifty years
- Seoul, South Korea+1 more episodeHost of the 1988 Olympics, which brought press scrutiny of adoption
Timeline
- 1953The Refugee Relief Act becomes the first U.S. law to use the word adoption.
- 1955A special act of Congress lets the Holts adopt eight Korean children.
- 1956The Holt Adoption Program is founded and proxy adoption and baby airlifts begin at scale.
- 1985Single-year peak of 8,837 Korean children sent abroad.
- 1988Korea's Health Ministry internally writes that agencies had become trafficking institutions.
- March 26, 2025The truth commission's interim report finds the state responsible for fraud and abuse.
Still debated
Researchers dispute how fraudulent the system was and how early the state knew, since falsified records make proof hard; the commission confirmed violations in only 56 of 367 cases. Whether the government was actively complicit or merely negligent in oversight is also contested, as is the round figure of 200,000.