A woman's search for a lost childhood in South Korea

"My identity, my immediate family, my extended family, everything was erased,' says adoptee Ju-rye Hwang. Sydney, Australia Ju-rye Hwang grew up assuming her parents in South Korea were dead and that she was alone in the world after being adopted to North America at about six years of age. That was until a phone call from a journalist in Seoul turned her world upside down."

"He told me that I was not an orphan, Hwang said. And it was most certain that I was illegally adopted for profit, she said. The journalist went on to tell Hwang about the notorious Brothers Home institution in South Korea, a place where thousands had endured horrific abuse, including forced labour, sexual violence, and brutal beatings. Hwang discovered that she had spent time at the institution as a child, before being offered for overseas adoption."

Ju-rye Hwang believed she was orphaned until a Seoul journalist revealed she was likely illegally adopted for profit and had spent time at Brothers Home. Brothers Home subjected thousands to forced labour, sexual violence and beatings before sending many children into overseas adoptions. Investigators found an archival file listing international adoptions that included Hwang's adoptive mother's name. Hwang reacted with physical illness upon learning her origins. The events trace to 1970s–80s South Korea, when authorities rounded up poor and marginalised people to clear streets, abducting children and adults under a policy to beautify cities and project prosperity.

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