- Author: So, Hyunsoog
- Title: Postwar History of War Orphans in the 1950s Their Condition and Social Measures
- Language: Korean
- Journal: Journal of Korean Modern and Contemporary History 84: 321-351
- Publication Year: 2018
- Publisher: The Association for Korean Modern and Contemporary History
■ Abstract War orphans were one of the major victims of the Korean War. Their relief was an urgent task in the postwar period, and the social measures included overseas adoption and orphanage admission. The orphanages focused on not only their basic survival needs but also education to develop them into democratic citizens. However, corruption and unstable operations due to excessive financial dependence on foreign aid organizations led to poor living conditions in some orphanages. A lack of orphanages and orphans’ refusal to live in them caused an increasing number of orphans on the streets. They struggled to survive by begging, or by selling goods or polishing shoes. Some of them were involved in prostitution and petty crimes. Although orphans were looked at with sympathy, street orphans were viewed with indifference. They were in desperate need of protection and social care but were treated as potential criminals because they were vagrants. These street orphans became easy victims of police arrests in the late 1950s when the punishment for juvenile offenders was strengthened. Their behavior was no longer blamed on the social environment of war and post war social inequality but on their criminal character, and they were thus socially excluded.
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