Father of 1,000: Korean War Orphans

Russell Blaisdell, a chaplain colonel in the US Air Force during the Korean War is attributed for saving nearly a thousand children orphaned during the horrific war. Approximately 37,000 US soldiers died in the war, compared with the estimated 2 million civilian deaths in North and South Korea. The children of the streets were casualties of another kind, living while their parents died, but dying because they didn't know how to live.

Russell Blaisdell, assigned as a chaplain to oversee the other chaplains in the US Air Force along with Chaplain "Wally" Wolverton, already in Korea when Russell got there, were the first two US Air Force chaplains with no others imminently scheduled to arrive. Having no specific office, place to sleep and at lose ends about overseeing chaplains that weren't in Korea yet, Russell started dedicating his great energy to helping the children who crawled from make-shift shelters, who chased after American trucks begging and who were tattered and shell-shocked. Along with Wally and sergeant Mike Strang they drove their assigned jeep around, scooping up orphans and transporting them to various care shelters staffed by Korean volunteers. Care of course was easier to provide than food, a war was going on, so Russell would ask servicemen for contributions, and many willingly gave, some giving as much as 50% of their pay! 

Russell's mission to help the orphans didn't really get started until after US and Korean forces were able to retake Seoul after its capture early in the war. The shock of seeing orphans, and so many of them, crying on the streets or crawling in rice bags to die, fueled Russell's energy to help in any way he could. He had already seen orphans throughout the country, but none were as miserable and destitute as those in Seoul. Children were everywhere. Many had parents who had been buried in mass graves -- the bodies of soldiers, priests, government workers were killed when the North Korean stormed Seoul, and all orphans seen by the North Koreans were killed too. And he knew that if/when the North Koreans returned, these orphans would stand no chance. Yet, Russell was surprised at the fight for survival in many so young, and Wally, Russell, and sergeant Mike Strang started organizing places for the orphans to regularly receive help. That is, until for health reasons Wally had to suddenly return to the States. 

Russell and Mike were then alone to organize the removal of the 1,000 orphans they had scattered in various care centers, and the North Koreans were coming back, and this time with Chinese soldiers as allies. Time was important. Evacuation was underway, but how to transport 1,000 orphans and their care-givers?!?! 

Russell frantically contacted various departments, offices, and repeatedly, but there was priority on soldiers and supplies. People were very compassionate, many had helped contribute money, the motor brigade had been most helpful and were always on the lookout for orphans, but there was just no space for 1,000 orphans as troops were ordered out of Seoul in limited transport trucks packed with artillery, soldiers and essentials. Russell was frantic. He could have evacuated with the others, and as a colonel that was totally acceptable and expected, but he chose to remain with the orphans and pray, while running to other departments to ask for assistance.

Kids of the Korean War: Father of a Thousand

Finally he was assigned a boat! A boat that would transport the children to Jeju island. The fortune of a boat as transport would be cold and most miserable for the smallest children, but transport is transport. Yet, when he saw the battered scow that couldn't possibly hold even 100 and even less in the winter sea, he adamantly refused to put a single soul on.

When almost everyone had evacuated, Russell, frantically running around without sleep for five days, went one last time to the Air Force headquarters to make an appeal. Seeing an Air Force Colonel, he ran up to him, unshaven and wild-eyed, and began to blather, "I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble and I need some help." Air Force Colonel T. C. Rogers listened to Russell, pulled out his operations manual and placed a call. Then to Russell he said, "It just so happens that I have a wing of C-54s that have just landed in Japan from the States, and they don't have a mission. If you get those kids to Kimpo Airport by 0800 tomorrow morning, we'll get them to Jeju." 

Russell said he would and rushed back to Incheon where the kids had already been transported over a three-day span of time. He had less than 24 hours to transport the kids 28 miles without trucks over pitted, bombed roads back to Seoul, a task that had taken 3 days just a few days prior. He knew he had to do it! His opportunity came at 0500 when a transport vehicles loaded cement onto a scow. Pulling rank on the drivers, he ordered them to transport the kids to Kimpo. They were not happy, but rank is to be respected. Transport commenced, and suddenly an apoplectic high-ranking colonel drove up screaming, "What are you doing with my trucks?" When he heard that they were being used to transport 1,000 orphans for their chance of hope, the colonel gladly gave Russell permission to commence the evacuation.

The C-54s stayed on the snowy tarmac until 1000 when the children were delivered to the planes for transport. The orphan rescue operation became known as "Operation Kiddy Car", and reading about the children in newspapers and magazines, people in the US began sending donations and supplies. Ms. Hwang Oh-Soon, a woman already with 11 years experience at running an orphanage, became the new director, and a very capable one at that. She organized the kids, cleaned them up, and when Russell returned for a brief visit to Jeju in August 1951 (his tour had completed three months prior), Russell Blaisdell was greeted with a large banner held by the children, thanking him. He was proud to say he saw the beginning of smiles on the resilient faces of many of the orphans.

On January 26, 2001 Russell Blaisdell returned to Korea to reconnect with Ms Hwang Oh-Soon, who was still alive at 102 and still the director at the orphanage [The Orphans Home of Korea, Kyounggi-do] that had been relocated near the capital after the war. She and a cloud of orphans from Operation Kiddy Car met with Russell, age 90. Many orphans gathered also to meet, greet and personally thank Russell for giving them the gift of life, for without being transported to Jeju, the 1,000 orphans and their caretakers as well would have a had a very slim chance to surviving the coming North Korean invasion. It was a touching reunion, and a time or reminiscing and sharing.

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[YouTube] "Arirang Prime－Blaisdell′s Operation Kiddy Car Airlift 브레이즈델 대령의 유모차 수송작전" (15:29)

When Russell first arrived in Seoul after pushing the North Koreans back in 1950, he estimated 6,000 orphans on the street. After the war ended in stalemate in 1953, 54,000 children were officially registered in orphanages, the youngest too young to remember their own names, let alone their parents' names, hometown or birthdays.

Spirit of Kwangju

Back in May 2015, Robert Koehler led a tour to Gwangju, the queen of southwest Korea, a city proud of its history of arts, culture and political activism (particularly the Gwangju Democratic Movement of May 1980), which many already know about. What is lesser known are some of the early modern historical sites, particularly Yangnim-dong, where American missionaries with the American Southern Presbyterian Mission established a base at the turn of the 20th century and played a significant role in the culture, social and spiritual development in the tumultous times of poverty, sickness, colonialism, and social, religious, governmental instability.

The neighborhood is still the home to missionary homes, mission churches and a historic mission school. Also is a missionary grave yard where 22 American Southern Presbyterian missionaries and their family members are buried, including the pioneering American missionary Rev. Eugene Bell. On one side of a building in the area is a Last Supper scene but replacing the traditional view of the 12 disciples are 12 of the leading church members of the time.

An interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" from left to right:

Martin L. Swinehart - 서로득선교사 (1874-1957)

절대고독의 시인 / 김현승 - (1913-1975)

Robert Manton Wilson - 우월순선교사 (1880-1963)

광주의 어머니 / 조아라 - (1912-2003)

Eugene Bell - 배우지선교사 ((1868-1925) 

Elisabeth J. Shepping - 서서평선교사 (1880-1934)

Owen Clement Carrington - 오원선교사 ((1867-1909)

Wiley Hamilton Forsythe - 포사이드선교사 (1873-1918)

오방/ 최흥종 - (1880-1966)

Herbert Augustus Codington - 고허번선교사 (1920-2003)

중국의 3대 작곡가 / 정율성 - (1914-1976)

검은 머리의 차이꼬프스키/ 정추 - (1923-2013)

Too little is said about missionaries who laid the foundation for literacy, medicine and much social reform in Korea. So seeing a building that actually salutes the missionary class is something rather novel in today's high-tech society filled with comforts and conveniences but which now pays little regard to the spiritual.

Korea-China Comfort Women Statue

Out exit 6 of Hansung University subway is yet another "comfort woman" statue. Although many such statues exist around Korea and in many foreign countries, I was unaware that a second existed in Seoul.

The red dots show where monuments and shrines for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery are (as of 2015). So the 'comfort woman' statue in front of the Japanese embassy is just an example of the sentiment throughout the entire South Korean peninsula about the need for recognition to the problem and the need for a formal apology from Japan for their heinous war crime(s). Picture taken at the House of Sharing, a home dedicated to care for the grandmothers euphemistically called former 'comfort women'. SOURCE

This particular statue was erected October 28, 2015 by Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia, and the corresponding dedication on the plaque says:

Korea China Comfort Women Statues for Peace

This Korean-Chinese "Comfort Women" Memorial is dedicated to the more than 200,000 young women from Korea, China and Southeastern Asian countries who suffered severe sexual slavery from Japanese soldiers during WWII. 
In pursuit of world peace, these crimes against humanity should never be forgotten and never be repeated.

 

 

I took these pictures in April, and passing by the perpetually innocent-looking pair today, I was not surprised to see that someone had thoughtfully removed the warming scarves to keep the spring chill away and replaced the scarves with daisy-chain flowers.

For more specific information on the "comfort women", read:

• symbolism of the comfort women statue 

• researcher Maija Rhee Devine's overview of the history of sexual slavery in Korea

• Research Professor Han Hong-gu and his in-depth study of sexual slavery from WWI but impacting the Vietnamese War as well 

In Memory of Molly Holt

It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that Molly Holt, daughter of Holt founders Harry and Bertha Holt, passed away early in the morning on May 17 in Korea. She was 83 years old. 

In South Korea, Molly was known by many names, from the Mother Teresa of Korea to the Mother of all Korea’s Orphans. Although she devoted her life to caring and advocating for children and adults with medical, developmental and physical needs in Korea, she leaves a legacy that is felt around the world.

Born on November 24, 1935 in Firesteel, South Dakota, Molly was the second eldest daughter of Harry and Bertha Holt, who pioneered international adoption in the mid-1950s and later founded Holt International. Molly attended high school in Creswell, Oregon, and later graduated from both the University of Oregon and Sacred Heart Hospital, where she earned a nursing degree in 1956.

The summer of that same year, Molly traveled for the first time to South Korea — fresh out of nursing school, and ready to help her father care for children left orphaned and abandoned in the wake of the Korean War. A devout Christian like her parents, Molly had a vision for her future while in Korea. “I felt that this was where the Lord would have me be for the rest of my life,” she later said.

Molly would go on to spend most of her adult life at the Ilsan Center in Korea, a nurturing, long-term care home that her parents built in the early 1960s for children and adults with special medical, developmental and physical needs. As a nurse and foster mother to the residents of Ilsan, Molly worked to ensure they received the specialized care they needed to reach their potential and live as independently as possible. Through her tireless advocacy, Molly also made it possible for many children in care at Ilsan to join loving, permanent families through adoption. Today, hundreds of families adopt children with special needs every year from countries around the world. But long before it was common, Molly actively sought families for the children who others considered “unadoptable.” Like her parents before her, Molly helped change the culture of adoption by showing that every child is equally worthy of love and acceptance, and that every child deserves to be part of a family.

Only a few times in her life did Molly leave the Ilsan Center for extended periods, and only to pursue additional training so that she could better meet the needs of the children and adult residents of Ilsan. She studied at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, attended Korean language school and Multnomah School of the Bible, did post-graduate work in special education at the University of Oregon, and in December 1991 she earned a master’s degree in special education and rehabilitation from Northern Colorado University. Throughout her life, she received many honors, including a presidential award, the National Order of Civil Merit from Korea in 1981, World Vision’s Bob Pierce award in 1984 and in 2009, for her lifetime of dedication to orphans and people with disabilities, she received the Royal Order of Merit from the king of Norway.

Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2013, Molly nevertheless remained steadfast in her commitment to the children and adult residents of the Ilsan Center. Despite her declining health, she said that she would devote her remaining life “to the things that she loves with her whole heart.” Molly never married or had children, but to the residents of Ilsan — many of whom are now in their 50s and 60s — Molly was their only family. They called her “Unee,” or big sister, a name that Molly cherished.

“Molly Holt moved so many with her tireless and admirable efforts, especially for those children with mental and physical disabilities,” says Stephen Noerper, senior director of the Korea Society and senior advisor to the United Nations. “As a brother of adopted, special needs siblings, I salute and admire her legacy of service. She offered six decades of tireless devotion, stood as a credit to her brave parents, and touched, formed and grew many through her compassion. The Korea Society and the entire community of those bent on international friendship and support extend deepest condolences to her family and friends and the entire Holt organization. To Molly Holt’s nobility, spirit and service, all tribute and our love and heartfelt prayers.”

Of Molly’s passing, Lee HongKoo, former prime minister of the Republic of Korea, wrote, “The contribution of Molly Holt to humanity and humanism … is a historic achievement. The modern history of Korea will record her achievement with gratitude and admiration. Many of us in Korea join the Holt adoptee community in recording our love and farewell.”

“I am saddened to hear of the passing of Molly Holt,” says Oregon senator Ron Wyden. “Although she lived most of her life in Korea, all of us in Oregon consider her an exceptional Oregonian.  Molly leaves a legacy of caring and compassion that will endure for generations to come.  Her devotion to orphaned children in Korea and around the world touched the lives of thousands of children and families and changed the hearts and minds of many more for the better.”

Steve Stirling, president and CEO of MAP International, lived at the Ilsan Center in Korea before he was adopted in 1966, at the age of 11. “I thank God for Molly for faithfully serving those in need through Holt and living in Ilsan to care for disabled residents,” he says. “While we will miss you now, I will rejoice when we unite for eternity in Heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus. So long for now until we meet again in our forever home.”

Please pray for Molly’s family and for the many people who have loved her that they might find peace and comfort in their memories.

Services for Molly will be held in Korea at 10:00 a.m. on May 21 at Holt Ilsan Center of Korea. Molly’s family requests that gifts be made in her honor to the Molly Holt Fund for Children With Special Needs. If you would like to share memories or photos of Molly Holt, please email them to photosubmission@holtinternational.org.

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Article Source:  "In Memory of Molly Holt" by Robin Munro

Yanggu County DMZ Tour

Steve Tharp, retired from serving 40 or more years in the US Army (most of the time in Korea) where he was first a soldier, then an officer and later becoming trained as an expert on Korean affairs, is now retired and leading tours in and around the DMZ area where he has spent many years working. He retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 2004 and has remained in Korea doing contract work with the US government. As a foreign negotiations officer, he speaks both Korean and Chinese, skills which make his tours more specific, and he incorporates negotiation or other experiential anecdotes to give perspective to particular areas he's leading tours in. In his retirement years, Steve is just starting out as a tour guide, and the RASKB is delighted to have him lead some tours for them. This is the second tour Steve has a led for the RAS, and it was a very insightful historical journey!

Before heading to Yanggu, we stopped off at the Livingstone Bridge, so named by a second lieutenant in the US Army who was trapped on one side of the river during flood conditions and so he and his troops were shot to bits. He lived long enough to be rescued and taken to medical facilities but with his dying breath sighed, "If there had been a bridge in this river, a great many of the soldiers could yet be alive." And so in his will to his wife, he wrote, "Dedicating all my fortune, make a bridge on this river, please."

Livingstone Bridge - it's a shock that something so serene could have been the site of such suffering and destruction

Monuments in front of and on Livingstone Bridge to commemorate the lives lost here.

RASKB photo curtesy

Tour Summary:

The day trip to Yanggu includes visits to Dutayeon and the Punchbowl, two sites which abut the Korean DMZ. At Dutayeon, participants will be hike around the site which has both natural beauty as well as security education spots which include military equipment static displays, land mine educational exhibition and a memorial to those soldiers that died at the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge during the Korean War. The Punchbowl is an unusual geologic formation that received its name because it looks like a giant "punch bowl". The Punchbowl is home to Eulji Observatory in the DMZ, North Korean Invasion Tunnel 4 and the Yanggu County Korean War Memorial. Departing at 7AM, the group will spend the morning at the Punchbowl, and after lunch travel to Dutayeon for sightseeing in the afternoon. The group will arrive at Chuncheon at 5 to 6 PM for a dinner of the local famous dish, dalkgalbi, before returning to Seoul around 9 PM.

Punchbowl was the name given to the bowl-shaped Haean-myon valley in Yanggu County, Gangwon Province by UN Forces during the Korean War. The Punchbowl lies south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. North of the 38th Parallel, it was originally in North Korea until captured by UN forces in late September 1950 during the UN offensive that followed the Inchon landings and the breakout from the Pusan perimeter. UN Forces abandoned the region in mid-December 1950, during the withdrawal following the Chinese People's Volunteer Army intervention in the war. On 4 June 1951 the 1st Marine Division and the ROK 5th Infantry Division began to advance north of Inje towards the Punchbowl and the Hwacheon Reservoir. By June 10 the Marine/ROKA force had secured Line Kansas northeast of the Hwacheon Reservoir and the southern line of hills overlooking the Punchbowl. Following the breakdown of armistice negotiations in August 1951, the United Nations Command decided to launch a limited offensive in the late summer/early autumn to shorten and straighten sections of their lines, acquire better defensive terrain, and deny the enemy key vantage points from which they could observe and target UN positions. 

The Battle of Bloody Ridge took place west of the Punchbowl from August–September 1951 and this was followed by the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge northwest of the Punchbowl from September–October 1951. Meanwhile, the 1st Marine Division reinforced by the Korean Marine Corps Regiment captured the line of hills north of the Punchbowl in the Battle of the Punchbowl from 31 August-20 September 1951. 

Civilian security education sites in the Punchbowl include the Yanggu War Memorial, Unification Hall, North Korean Infiltration Tunnel 4 and Eulji Observatory.

RASKB photo curtesy

A salute to the dog that sniffed out Tunnel 4 but was killed when he stepped on a land mine.
Posthumously, the dog was promoted from staff sergeant to 2nd lieutenant.

Tunnel 4. Down the mountain and on the northwest portion of the Punchbowl is North Korea’s Invasion Tunnel 4. According to intelligence analysis, it is believed that North Korea began digging tunnels after Kim Il-sung issued the September 25 Combat Readiness Order in 1971. In this order, he stressed the need to dig tunnels through the DMZ saying that one tunnel would be more effective than 10 atomic bombs and would thus be the best means to blow through the ROK Army defenses along the front lines. The tunnels are an integral component of the North Korean military strategy of a quick victory in a blitzkrieg attack on the South. 

In September 1974, a North Korean officer defected in the area just west of Mt. Dora in Paju and told interrogators of the North Korean tunneling effort which led to the discovery of Tunnel 1 in Yeoncheon County on November 15, 1974. This was followed by the discovery of Tunnel 2 in Cheorwon County on March 19, 1975 and Tunnel 3 south of Panmunjom on October 17, 1978. After a break of 12 years, Tunnel 4 was discovered on March 3, 1990 within the Punchbowl in Yanggu County about 200 kilometers from Seoul. This tunnel is at a depth of 145 meters and is 2 meters high by 2 meters in width. Stretching more than a kilometer across the DMZ, it was designed to infiltrate massive forces in the Sowha-Wondong corridor, the major access route to the Yongdong (Seoul-Gangnung) Expressway. The group will view a video before walking into the Tunnel. At the end of the intercept tunnel (on a slight downgrade for about 200 meters-nothing compared to Tunnel 3 at Paju), guests ride a tram about 100 meters through the North Korean tunnel and return without dismounting.

Additional notes:  

A North Korean high up in the party and who defected in 1974 reported that according to NK plan, 18-22 tunnels were to be built. Two months later the first tunnel was discovered. So, the 4 tunnels were discovered in 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1990.  

Tunnel 4 was 2km long when it was discovered and needed 1km more. It is estimated that digging at 3 meters/day, it would have taken 10 more years to finish the tunnel. The tunnel was detected with specialized equipment and then an intercepting shaft was dug. This is the shaft that is now used for tourism.

RASKB photo curtesy

Eulji Observatory is a South Korean civilian security education center located on the northern lip of the Punchbowl on the edge of the General Outpost (GOP) line which is usually also the southern boundary fence of the DMZ. It is manned by soldiers of the ROK Army 12th Infantry Division, and Eulji is the division’s name (for a famous ancient Korean general Eulji Mundok, who successfully defended the ancient Korean Goguryeo Kingdom against the Sui Chinese). Photos are not allowed to the north, but there is a photo area on the south side with the Punchbowl as a background. The observatory is located in the Korean demilitarized zone about 1 kilometer from the military demarcation line. On a clear day, the five peaks of Mt. Geumgangsan in North Korea are visible from the observatory platform. ROK Army Soldiers provide briefings to visitors on the local area and answer questions but do not allow picture taking of the DMZ and northern area.

RASKB photo courtesy

Unification Hall and Yanggu War Memorial are co-located at the Punchbowl tour registration site and is by necessity the first stop. The Unification Hall exhibition center has two display rooms, all in Korean, dedicated to explaining different aspects of North Korean life and attempts for South-North reconciliation over the years since the Armistice was signed. On the north side (left) is a group of military equipment static displays while on the south is the Yanggu War Memorial, a “chronological walk-through” facility with the lead up to the Korean War near the entrance and the Armistice Agreement signing near the exit. 

Opened on June 20, 2000, the War Memorial Museum was built to commemorate the sacrifice and heroism of those who fought during the Korean War at the nine major battlefields located in the Yanggu area: Dosolsan, Daeusan, Bloody Ridge, Baekseoksan, Punch Bowl, Gachilbong, Heartbreak Ridge, Hill 949, and Christmas Hill. The museum also reminds the current and future generations of the real cost of war and the sacrifices that were made. The exhibition hall is divided according to themes: freedom, welcoming, meeting, understanding, experience, assurance, tribute, rooftop, and contemplation. Exhibition facilities include a high-quality imaging system and a three-way multi imaging room that combines battle scene dioramas, videos, and slides. In addition to the military static displays, there is a monument to all of the Korean and United Nations Command Soldiers that fought in the Korean War.

Dutayeon (Duta Pond) is located on a branch of the Suipcheon stream that originates from the Mt. Gumgang area and flows through Bangsan-myeon in the Civilian Control Zone abutting the Korean DMZ about 165 kilometers northeast of Seoul. It derives its name derived from the Duta Saran Temple, which was located in this area about a thousand years ago. The water going from the miniature falls into the pond is limited but as it drops from one level to the next, it forms the shape of the Korean Peninsula. The surrounding forest provides superb scenery while the pollution-free waters provide a perfect habitat for Korea’s largest lenok (Manchurian trout) population. 

A 20-meter screen of flat rocks surrounds the pond and the east wall features a 10-meter square cave, the floor of which is imprinted with the shape of a comb and a horse harness. A close look at the rocks from the viewing stand to the south and you can envision a man and a woman about to kiss. The left side is the man and the right side is the woman’s face. The woman is tilting her head up and looking at the man. Even though the man and woman in love are standing apart, they convey the longing for unification just as the Korean people wish for the unification of the Korean Peninsula. 

The memorial to the Korean War Battle of Heartbreak Ridge is located north of the pond. Additionally, in the area between the Heartbreak Ridge Memorial and the pond is a field with outdoor modern art exhibit and military equipment static displays. The military equipment consists of artillery and armored vehicles used since the Korean War which stands in sharp contrast to the modern art exhibits. At the viewing stand to the south of the pond is a hand molded from actor So Ji-sub so that he could shake the hand of everyone who visited Dutayeon. It is on the path to the land mine exhibit dedicated to explaining about the different types of land mines that are typically found in the Korean DMZ.

Info on this page directly lifted from the Royal Asiatic Society Korean Branch excursion page, as were all photos noted as such.