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Hey, everyone, This is Carmen and Christina and this is
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Ittoia's Unknown, a podcaster where we talk about Latin American history.
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Sometimes it's horrible and deals with heavy topics like racism, corruption,
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and genocide. But more than that, it's also about resistance,
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power and community. And today today we're not talking about
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Latin American history. Today we have a special guest author,
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Page Towers, and she's on to tell us about her
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new book. But for us a little bit about Page.
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Page Towers is a creative and freelance writer who earned
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a BA in political science from the University of Iowa
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and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Emerson College.
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Her writing has appeared in the World, She's Impost, The Guardian,
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and several other publications, and her second book, What They Stole,
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A Familicide Rooted in Inner Country Adoption, is out now
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from University of Iowa Press, and the book is a
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work of literary journalism investigating Bertha and Harry Holt, an
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evangelical couple who adopted eight children after the Korean War,
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told through lens of a familia side that happened in
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Iowa City, while also examining how raised religion, capitalism, and
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global inequalities still drive the inner country adoption in the
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street today. What an amazing book. Heavy heavy, It is
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very heavy, very heavy, but very important. Yes, as you'll
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find out why and what this is about in the episode.
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And unsurprising, Latin America does come up because as you know,
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we've done two episodes on both Chile and Guatemala and
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their the adoption, international adoption that went on there, and
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the systems are connected and so yeah, yeah, very very
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similar horrible situations. Yes, so it's it feels weird to say,
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but enjoy the episode.
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Also check out the book.
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I mean we're into dark, heavy topics here. No one
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will be surprised about that. But I want to say
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this has been one of my top books of the year,
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if not the top not I think the top nonfiction book.
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I'm trying to remember what else, what other nonfiction I've
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read this year, but for sure it's up there. It
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was infre reading, captivating, informative, so so important. Yes, yes,
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here everyone, we have a special guest today.
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And Page Towers and I am writer based in Bellingham
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and my second book just came out. It's called What
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They Stole a familicide rooted in inner country.
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Adoption, Yes, and what a fascinating book. What They Stole
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examines both the history of US adoption from Korea and
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the two thousand and eight familicide case of Stephen how
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do you pronounce his last name?
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Suple?
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Souple?
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Okay?
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I was wondering that the whole time is.
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Stephen Souple who killed his wife and four adopted children
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from Korea. Before we talk about Harry Hole and the
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whole agency, the dark and troubled history of US adoption
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in Korea, and how things are connected to Stephen Souple,
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We're interested to know what drew you to this topic.
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So I was originally drawn to this topic because my
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hometown is actually where this Familla side occurred. I'm originally
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from Iowa City, Iowa, and so I was a senior
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at the University of Iowa in two thousand and eight
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when this murder suicide happened. You know, iOS to be
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is like a fairly small, close net community, and so
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it was it was Yeah, as you can imagine, it
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was horrifying and shocking for the entire community. And I
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didn't know the superls personally, but I had like a
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hundred social connections to them and would see them around
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town sometimes. That said, it didn't really occur to me
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to think about the adoption side of the story until
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a year later two thousand and nine. You'll remember two
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thousand and eight, there was the economic fallout. I gave
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up my career plans because I didn't want to take
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on more debt, and I went to South Korea to
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teach English. And while I was there, I was like,
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why is this modern, like thriving country still sending children
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to the West for adoption? But it really again this question,
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It really didn't hit me until like twenty nineteen that
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I started googling and researching the case. Honestly, what happened
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was there was like a Reddit thread for adoptees, and
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I became obsessed and I was just reading as much
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as I could. I was clicking on all the links
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they were sharing, and pretty soon I was buying books
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written by adopted people and adoptive activists and academics, and
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then I started reading pro adoption literature just to understand,
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like what's happening here, to try to understand how this
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came to be. And so, I mean, honestly, within like
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two weeks of googling this case, I was like, I'm
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going to try to write this book, which it was ambitious. Yeah,
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so it took me like six years to do all
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the research and all the interviews. But yeah, so I
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knew right away I was at least going to.
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Try it would be read it.
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Yep, it would be ready.
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Yeah, and it makes sense, total sense.
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And it took that long because it's so there's just
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so much information and such a huge time span that
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you explored. Can you tell us about Harry Holt his
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audacity and how his evangelical beliefs played a role in
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the way he developed his adoption practice. I guess those
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things affected adoption as a whole in general too.
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Right, So, Harry and birth of Holt are actually a
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Midwestern couple of Retho went to University of Iowa. Actually
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they were first cousins. They were part of this very
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conservative steck called the Plymouth Brethren, often mistaken for Midde
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Night's extremely biblically literal born again Christian would be like
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the closest proximity. During the Great Depression, they moved to
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Oregon and they became very, very wealthy through logging and
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farming and building businesses, and as you stated, they became
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evangelical born again Christians, but they did not have any
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experience in child welfare whatsoever. Harry, he had like an
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eighth grade education, which is fine. He was farming. But
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what happened was in nineteen fifty four there was a
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missionary that came back from South Korea, went to Eugene
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organ and put on this big presentation about the multi
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racial children in South Korea. And these were children that
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were fathered by US soldiers born to Korean women. And
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this was sort of the first time obviously that this
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has happened on the Korean peninsula, and in general there
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was also from the Korean War which had ended in
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nineteen fifty three. It was also mass displacement and a
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huge lack of social services, poverty, a family separation. So
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the Holts, after this presentation, they very quickly felt called
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by God to go adopt eight multiracial children. They didn't
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this was not a legal thing at the time. It
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was only legal to adopt up to two children, unless
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that meant splitting up multiple siblings. But Harry went to Korea.
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He searched through orphanages and he picked out eight children.
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He received support from senators back home and they wrote
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him a special act in Congress, and he flew back
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home in nineteen fifty five with these eight children, and
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it was a huge national media event, like Life magazine,
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book magazine everywhere across the country covered this event. And
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with all this media publicity, suddenly, yes, they've launched a
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very primitive adoption agency. And what my book really focuses
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on is the complete lack of regulation, and they're inexperience.
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So I think what people don't know about the whole
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is that there was no screening of adoptive families, There
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was no background checks. What was required of families is
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that they'd be born again Christians. And so that is
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our early history of inner country adoption from South Korea,
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which was really the first country to really explode this industry.
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And as you can imagine, as I wrote in the book,
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very quickly things start to fall apart, and a lot
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of these children did not thrive and did not survive
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their childhoods. And I forget what you asked me. From there,
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I feel like always I can talk about because it
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is so wild and radical, I can just focus on
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nineteen fifty five for other forever. But basically what happens
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after that, just like the quick story, is that the
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Wholts start bringing children over on what they call babylifts.
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So instead of letting children recuperate and gain health in
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South Korea, or join a foster family, or help them
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stay with their biological families, or have domestic go through
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a domestic adoption process, instead the children are placed on
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these Corgo planes one hundred out of time, some of
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them only a couple of weeks old, five six pounds,
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some of them tuberculosis, pneumonia, all sorts of ailments, and
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as you can imagine, some of the kids don't survive
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that flight. Those flights and people would pick up their
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children's site unseen in American airports, and that system lasted
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for decades and expanded in numbers that were huge by
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like the nineteen eighties, had become this very competitive capitalistic industry.
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And then as we know it also they took this
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model from South Korea and applied it to and other
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mostly post colonial, non Christian majority countries.
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It was it was so frustrating to first, too.
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Well and like infuriating honestly, first I couldn't believe how
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the whole government based not the whole government, but you
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know what I mean, like they made a whole they
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changed the law for him to be able to do this,
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and I wasn't shocked, but at the same time, I
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was like, I can't, I couldn't believe it. And it
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was like it was being after thing that because there
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were standards being set at the time about adoption and
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there was child wild for professionals because mind you, like
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things like this had already happened here right like when
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I can't remember the year, but the Indian Child Wolf
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Act was established because of situations like this where why
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evangelical Christian families, you know, felt that children were better
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off with white families and so there was like standards
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being adopted and being like put in place, and they
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tried to talk to Harry about it, and he just
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felt like he knew better.
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Right. Yeah, they were a very anti government couple, very paranoid,
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very conspiracy theory based. And I think I'm so glad
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you brought that up because I feel like they've been
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credited as like the pioneers of inter country adoption, which
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this is a term that actually used as at like
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you know, a celebratory thing, a super problematic and horrible,
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but also they they weren't. Inter country adoption did exist,
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especially after World War Two, and again there was like
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mass displacement of children and family separation, but like you said,
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there were regulations, there was screening, there were social workers involved,
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there was attempts at family reunification, and so like what
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the whole stint was so highly unorthodox and radical, and
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then obviously it changed.
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Everything wild inappropriately wild. Imperialism and racism were major influences
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in the way that international adoption developed in Korea, both
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from the US and Korea. Can you tell us about
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the authoritarian Korean government and their role in creating this
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system of international adoption?
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Sure? So, I think what people need to remember is
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that South Korea was a colonized country after World War Two.
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They had just escaped the brutal colonization by Japan. And
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so you have, without like going to deep into it,
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you have the Korean War, where you have North Korea
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is propped up by the Soviet Union in China and
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they obviously have a communist government, and then you have
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South Korea, which the US very quickly joins the war
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and it's a horrible brutal war with mass civilian death,
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and then by the end of it, everybody ends up
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at the same line they started from the what's the
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word the d m Z I'm always afraid. And so
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the US has a leader propped up, a man, a
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Christian man who went to Princeton, Sigmund Ri, and his
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focus was it's it's it's hard to say, and it's
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complicated that the country need to read the building. But
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there was no funds going to social services whatsoever. Instead,
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there was just always sort of this focus on the
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looming threat of communism, and so there was a massive
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military build up. You also have this government that's very
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focus on like a racial purity is the propaganda that's happening,
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and so right away having multiracial children and the country
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really challenges this this new line that they've established. And
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it also of course deals with with misogyny because you
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have all of these women in camp towns who are
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having sex with you as soldiers, and you're in some
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European soldiers it's to somehow survive to make a living,
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and so the Korean government really wanted to just rid
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the country of these children in order to solve this
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perceived social issue. And at the same time, of course,
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like we know that it's all about money too. They
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did not have to put funds that were needed to
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support women, girls and women in camptowns. They didn't have
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to support you know, they didn't have to make room
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for child care, they didn't have to establish a foster
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care system of any kind. And so like when you
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have this man Harry Fold coming in and allegedly passing
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out a lot of money for these children and the
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you know, white American families back home arcs you know,
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more than happy to pay whatever fee to bring home
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the children and very quickly like against this pipeline of children.