서강대학교

초록/요약

This thesis contends that ethnic nationalism, women’s roles, and the biracial Korean children’s mixed heritage were substantial factors influencing the societal stigmatization single Korean mothers and their biracial Korean children received after the Korean War in Korea. This stigmatization, along with complementary international and domestic cultural pressures that supported the public policy of sending illegitimate biracial Korean children abroad, led to making international adoption the default, least complicated solution for illegitimate Korean children. As the Chos?n dynasty gave way to the Japanese annexation of Korea during the beginning of the twentieth century, Korean nationalists used ethnic nationalism to combat Japanese assimilation policies. Ethnic nationalism stressed the supposed shared lineage of the Korean people to unite them. After the Korean War, Syngman Rhee utilized his “One Peopleism” form of ethnic nationalism to create a new national narrative. “One Peoplism” emphasized the uniqueness and racial purity of the Korean people. South Korea’s nationalist narrative then revolved around blood. The existence of illegitimate Korean biracial children challenged this narrative and the Syngman Rhee-headed government urged the adoption abroad of these children. On the other side, many Americans were eager to adopt out of religious and nationalist motivation that was uniquely American, a fusion that historian Arissa Oh calls “Christian Americanism.” Many Korean women found themselves in a socioeconomically disadvantaged position after the Korean War. They turned to performing paid sex work for American military servicemen as a means of financial survival. They were stigmatized for breaking the Neo-Confucian value of chastity with non-Korean men they were not married to. Some of these women gave birth to biracial children who reportedly faced discrimination for their mixed ethnic background and for their failure to be entered into a family registry?they were considered illegitimate since their parents were unmarried. Many mothers believed they were giving their children a chance to start over as another family’s legitimate child by sending their children abroad for international adoption. At the same time, if the mother could find another occupation or a husband, they also gave themselves a chance to regain their respectability within a country trying to establish itself after a civil war. While efforts were made to integrate biracial Korean children into Korean society, in-fighting among international aid organizations and the Korean government’s scant financial assistance undermined these efforts, making international adoption the default least complicated solution. As the number of biracial Korean children declined, the majority of Korean children who were adopted abroad became illegitimate full Korean children.