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.

--------------------------------------------------

[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.

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.

_______________________________________________________________________

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

Legacy of Guilt, the book

 Carol Zanetti writes her memoir of growing up poor - from a New York ghetto to living on the road - being sexually abused by her stepfather, and thus lost in a tight protective cocoon of silence and fearfulness. In her book Legacy of Guilt (2007) she writes honestly and painfully of her nightmare years as a child which was dominated by her sexually abusive stepfather and then procedes to analyze herself as she makes the same mistakes as her mother by slipping through one awkward marriage earning a child and immediately marrying another man who fathers two more children.

When her children were small (all under the age of 7), Lew Zanetti, her second husband who was domineering and abusive wanted to return to South Korea where he had worked in the army. This time he felt a "spiritual" burden for the Amerasians of and following the Korean War, so he wanted to fight for them and preach salvation (although he refused to belong to any religion). He spouted convincing lies to convince her ... South Korea is a developing country, it has many work opportunities in the young government, and so he pushed simultaneous government officer-missionary return to Korea. What he didn't say was that he very much loved the autocratic male-dominated Confucian society, and the "respect" given to foreigners, especially men, and that he lived on hopes and dreams of success on his terms, and so he plunged his wife and three boys into primitive country life in or near Daegu. Lew didn't work. Carol had to care for the kids, and their money dwindled quickly. At one point when they were eating ramyeon almost every meal lepers in the community took pity on them and made a substantial "heart" gift of 144 carefully wrapped eggs. And Carol and the kids could get nourishment again.

Lew was frequently gone on "business" trips, spending money, rarely making it, in his fight to get the Korean government to recognice the problem of the Amerasians, the "dust of the streets", the "no-names" a.k.a. the "fatherless". In short, Lew was fighting to expose the shame of Korea. Meanwhile, Carol and the boys lived in poverty without any of the conveniences that foreigners in Korea were known to have. She and her boys (and Lew when he was home) shared part of their rental hanok with a group of Amerasian youth, ages 17-26, who would be trained in reading, writing and skills once the government would allocate funding. Carol had been sold on the idea of serving others but quickly realized that Lew had sold her on another of his glib shemes again, but this time at his family's expense ... and when her one year was up, she fled to Seoul, begged an office for a loan to get her and her boys out of there, and three days before she and her boys flew back to the States, the Third Tunnel (the Tunnel of Aggression) which was more than a mile and a half long and carved through solid bedrock was found which linked North and South Koreas and which could be used to transport thousands of troops per minute from the north for invading South Korea. [Tunnel of Aggression was discovered October 27, 1978].

When begging for the loan, the office already knew who she was. Carol realized that even though for the whole year of Lew trying to raise awareness with the government but with the government only returning silence, they were in fact known, watched and Lew's progress and channels of communication were being documented. The office was very impressed that she had stuck it out and lived in such penury and hardship for the year. After Carol left, Lew did get invited to Seoul by the Korean Minister of Social Affairs and he was asked to write a thesis on the Amerasian situation.
A couple of years following the treatise, a technical school was finally a reality, but when there were an estimated 3000 Amerasians in South Korea at that time, age and other factors were enforced to cull them down to only 1500 of them to be considered as prospective students for the program. The South Korean government didn't want to pay for the education, training and support of "foreigners" so impoverished Korean youth were also added to the program.

The majority of the book is not about South Korea or the Amerasians, but about Carol herself. Her missionary attempt in South Korea, however, was what made her realize her own "guilt" about not speaking out about her abuse, her guilt at not being the "spiritual person" who could unconditionally serve Amerasians, and guilt about many things. All of this "guilt" she traces back to her abuse by her stepfather. But ironically, her year of penurious service did help her expiate some of that guilt and come to see it for what it was, a burden in her life. Her experience and interactions with many individual Amerasians allowed her to open up and be able to turn over a new leaf, go back to the States, and claim her future.

Cross-referencing Materials:

"Kids Who Live As Non-Persons: Children of Americans left in Korea to wander between two worlds, unwanted by either", an article in Parade Magazine, July 6, 1980 by Hank Whittemore. The article was about an Amerasian who actually wasn't an Amerasian but a completely Caucasian boy secretly born of two soldiers while on duty in Korea and abandoned when they left. Reason for abandonment: pregnancy meanst an automatic discharge (from the US forces) in 1954. Their "son" Jimmy grew up taunted and hated as any Amerasian.

Father Keane, an American clergyman, almost single-handedly maintained the only orphanage in South Korea for mixed-race children and young adults. He also would make trips to the US to lobby for legislation and for changes in the immigration laws. Father Keane had also been trying to pressure the South Korean government long before Lew. Evidently the axes were chipping the tree, because funding did finally come and eventually immigration laws were changed.

"The South Korean government paid for Lew's room and board in a nice hotel while he wrote a long treatise outlining his efforts and ideas for the future. The South Korean government apparently had no idea how to deal with Amerasians who, it must be remembered, were  foreigners in their eyes. The government had no idea what kinds of programs were needed or how to reach these young people. Lew's document was the basis of a proposal that eventually brought in a grant for $11 million which was allocated for programs that would benefit both Amerasian and Korean youth. That, and subsequent grants and efforts, were a direct result of Lew's treatise." p.250

Christmas Party at Samdong Boys Town

Every year the few people who regularly volunteer at the Samdong Boys Town (orphanage) organize a Christmas party for the boys. This year the Christmas party had probably as many volunteers as there were boys in the orphanage (66). The volunteers were to brings cookies, treats, presents, and games. One lady spent the whole previous evening and the morning of the party baking brownies and cookie-bars. She brought a whole backpack full of containers and a warm cake pan full of more: fig bars, apple bars, peanut butter choco-chip brownies, choco-chip brownies and lemon bars! Everyone contributed something AND was rewarded with a day of fun time with the kids.

Together the team of volunteers laid out a fantastic spread of food for the boys. After the food was laid out, the boys filed in and took their seats according to age - youngest in the front. To warm up the kids to all the activities, Christmas hats or antler head-pieces were randomly tossed out to the group followed by some small pieces of candy. Yep, the group was warming up! To kick off the program, some of the younger boys had prepared 2 songs to sing (not Christmas songs - Korea is only really starting to "celebrate" Christmas like westerners) to their foreign visitors and then all of us responded with 2 songs: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells (the boys were given the printed words to sing along). Then those who volunteered for crafts stationed their tables. All told there were probably 16 little crafts and several of the boys were able to do 3 of them, which they proudly carried around the room. After the crafts got organized, the outdoor games were started and that's where the older boys quickly migrated to - many thought they were too old to do the little cutsie Christmas crafts although a couple of the larger boys did indulge.

Outside there were at least 10 little game activities set up, most based on dexterity and the ability to throw or balance. For boys who successfully accomplished the activity, a point ticket was awarded him and when he had enough points he could go to the prize table and redeem his points for a prize. All prizes were of different values but the one prize that many boys had their eyes on was a gigantic container of mixed popcorn treats. The boy who won it whooped around the yard holding the container high over his head with his friends dancing around him!

The weather was getting colder as the sun slipped low in the sky so the boys were rounded up and returned to the cafeteria where the festivities were to be concluded. When the boys were all sitting again in their assigned chairs, Santa came "Merry Christmassing" in, dressed in red and asking if any boys had been good that year. The younger boys seemed more familiar with the regular volunteers and seemed to know more English - they of couse shouted that they had been VERY good! Santa bellowed some more greetings and his little elf dressed in a red Chinese dressing gown came to help him distribute the gifts by age to all the boys in the orphanage. I'm not sure what the older boys got but the younger boys got giant coloring or picture books and a rubbery dinosaur ....... but the three little three-year-olds who didn't participate much (too young) seemed to have hung the moon when they got their little dinosaurs! The orphanage "mother" Lee Jong Won also was given a gift for appreciation of her years of love and care to the boys.

I spoke with Lee Jong Won afterwards and she has worked in this orphanage for 54 years! This particular orphanage was opened in 1952 by the American servicemen who organized a home for the huge number of homeless children they were always encountering. [Reported numbers of orphanages during/after the war were no less than 400; David Hyungbok Kim in his book Who Will Answer... suggests as many as 800.] The orphanage has moved 4 times since 1952 with the most recent move 4 years ago to its present site with new facilities. But actually, like all orphanages in Korea, Samdong Boys Town does not house "true" orphans - by definition, children without living parents or parent. The children here are victims of divorced parents who cannot take the child bearing another name or not having the blood of the other parent into a new marriage relationship; the children are victims of abuse, or from low-income families who cannot take care of their children's needs properly. When I asked how many "true" orphans there were at Boys Town, the orphanage mother didn't clearly answer my question. She said, "They are from families of divorce or abuse and so come here became they cannot stay in that situation, so they are all true orphans." Obviously the definition of "true orphan" varies based on perspective.

If the families would release the boys for adoption rather than put them in orphanages to grow up, the boys could have the much-needed family atmosphere. The orphanage system in Korea (like in many countries) is very controversial. Yes, it is better than children living on the streets, but in actuality, when parents just put their children in a home to grow up and do not sign for the children to be adopted into a family atmosphere and experience a real family through adoption (if Koreans are willing to adopt), then this system needs to be altered.

Some pictures of Boys Town back in the 1950s: 1st picture is a presentation ceremony, 2nd picture is of some boys enjoying the traditional ways of "skating" on wooden sleds propelled by strength via using wooden poles for pushing: