Table Of ContentAdopting for God
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Adopting for God
The Mission to Change America
through Transnational Adoption
Soojin Chung
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
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NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
www.nyupress.org
© 2021 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or
changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chung, Soojin, author.
Title: Adopting for God : the mission to change America through transnational adoption /
Soojin Chung.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021011575 | ISBN 9781479808847 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781479808854 (paperback) | ISBN 9781479808885 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781479808861 (ebook other)
Subjects: LCSH: Intercountry adoption—United States—History. | Intercountry adoption—
East Asia—History. | Interracial adoption—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Interracial
adoption—United States—History.
Classification: LCC HV875.55 .C48 2021 | DDC 362.734088/2773—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021011575
New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials
are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli-
ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
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To Daniel and Priscilla
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Contents
Introduction 1
1. The Foundation of the Transnational Adoption Movement 21
2. Hero or Villain? The Holts and the Korean Adoption Boom 57
3. Mother of Transracial Adoption 87
4. Helen Doss’s The Family Nobody Wanted 119
Conclusion: Christianity, Race, Gender, and Family- Making 141
Acknowledgments 159
Notes 161
Bibliography 189
Index 205
About the Author 217
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Introduction
I own a vintage photo of Harry and Bertha Holt, the founders of an adop-
tion agency called Holt International, descending from a Pan American
World Airways airplane with twelve Asian babies. Taken on October 14,
1955, the photo depicts the Holts alongside Robert Pierce, the founder
of the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision, and several
other men dressed in suits, all proudly carrying Asian children.1 A
photo taken from a different angle, displayed on the Holt International
website, has become the iconic photo of transnational adoption and a
symbol of altruism.2 Even to those who are not familiar with the photo’s
history, the image is endearing—t he adorable children wear traditional
Korean hanbok, some smiling innocently while others look around curi-
ously. But there is more to the heartwarming photo than this. If we look
closely, we can surmise that the children are of mixed- race heritage.
Some do not look East Asian. An uninformed person is left wonder-
ing why these mixed- race children flew across the Pacific without their
parents, wearing traditional Korean dress.3
These children were a product of the Korean War, often referred to as
“the forgotten war” due to the relative lack of public attention it received.
Korea was under Japanese occupation until Japan surrendered to the
Allied forces on August 15, 1945. Soon after Korean independence from
Japanese colonization, Korea was split into two opposing governments.
The Soviet Union accepted the ad- hoc American proposal for the divi-
sion of Korea in 1945. The South was supported by the United States and
the North by the Soviet Union. The Harvard- and Princeton- educated
Syngman Rhee became the president of South Korea, and the guerrilla
fighter Kim Il Sung became the premier of North Korea. With the two
governments locked in hostility from the moment of the split, Korea
became a major theater of the Cold War. In January 1950, U.S. Secretary
of State Dean Acheson gave a speech at the National Press Club that left
Korea and Taiwan out of the American defense perimeter. Less than
1
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2 | Introduction
half a year later, North Korea invaded South Korea and the Korean War
broke out. By the end of 1950, American and Chinese troops had esca-
lated the civil war into a global conflict.
The war devastated Korea. The casualties exceeded 2.5 million
people— many of them civilians— and more than 10 million people were
displaced, which created countless widows and orphans. By the time the
war came to a halt with an armistice in 1953, Korea was one of the most
destitute nations in the world. To compound the matter, American ser-
vicemen who were stationed in South Korea during the war impregnated
numerous Korean women through military prostitution and fleeting love
affairs. Many mixed- race children, along with orphaned “full- blooded”
children, were abandoned during this time. The twelve babies captured
in the photo were part of the abandoned mixed- race population. During
the years following the war, America endeavored to rebuild the war-t orn
South Korea and sent $6 billion in humanitarian aid. Missionaries also
stepped in to bring relief to the devastated country.
In this context, the photo of the Holts and the orphans represents
much more than a heartwarming moment. Culturally, the Americans
who staged the event wanted obvious imagery of the East and the West
coming together, as seen in the sharp contrast between the attire of the
Americans and that of the mixed-r ace children. One woman who appears
to be East Asian is also wearing hanbok, while Bertha Holt is wearing a
modest, Western-s tyle dress. Politically, to the American public, the Holts
represented U.S. democracy, where religious freedom flourished. South
Korea was an innocent child in need of saving; North Korea was the vile,
communist enemy; Christian America was the benevolent savior that
would bring democracy and Christianity to South Korea.4 Religiously,
the child-p arent paradigm represented the paternalism commonly found
in American mission history. Harry and Bertha Holt—a doptive parents
and evangelical Christians who identified themselves as missionaries—
were both metaphorical and literal parent figures to the impoverished
children in need of Western help. Indeed, when missionaries founded
churches in Asia, the hierarchy between the missionaries and indigenous
Christians was often framed with a child- father paradigm.
The intersection of Harry and Bertha Holt’s identities, as American
Christians and as white adoptive parents who promoted and facilitated
transnational adoption from East Asia, represents the crux of this book.
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