Circumstantial Evidence
Jonathan Wittmaier’s poem Circumstantial Evidence brings history to life, exploring the hidden connections between the Korean War and the adoption industry. After months of research, he uncovered stories often left out of mainstream narratives—stories that shaped his own journey as an adoptee.
In his accompanying blog post, Rewriting the Narrative, he shares what inspired the poem and how writing helped him process these truths.
Through his words, he invites us to see beyond the numbers and understand the real lives affected by war and adoption. Listen here:
Circumstantial Evidence
Lest we forget
it began with
Civil War
North against South
brother against—
So on and so forth...
A war by proxy
is still a war
4,000,000 [1] Koreans dead
approx.
Call it genocide
by proxy
_____________________________
[1] While the exact death toll / remains unknown and a point of contention / both North and South Korea estimate / close to 1,000,000 civilians were killed / during the course of the war / on both sides
If a war by proxy
is still a war worth
dying for—
37,000 [2] Americans killed
approx.
another 3100 [3] UN forces
killed
900,000 [4] Chinese
killed
All in all
over 5,000,000 [5]
dead approx.
_____________________________
[2] An additional 7,400 American troops / still designated as missing / with 5,300 believed to be / somewhere in North Korea
[3] The United Nations Command (UNC) / the multinational military force / consisted of troops from Australia / Belgium / Canada / Colombia / Denmark / Ethiopia / France / Germany / Greece / India / Italy / Luxembourg / Netherlands / New Zealand / Norway / Philippines / South Africa / Sweden / Thailand / Turkey / United Kingdom
[4] The People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) / the armed forces allied with North Korea / consisted of troops from / The People’s Republic of China
[5] The Korean Armistice Agreement / was signed on July 27, 1953 / an estimated 3,000,000 civilians were killed / over the course of the three-year conflict
orphan [6] (ôrfən)
n.
1.
a. A child whose parents are dead.
b. A child who has been deprived of parental care and has not been adopted.
2. A young animal that has been prematurely separated from its parents or its mother.
In 1951,
only one year
into the war
there were approx.
100,000 [7] orphaned children
across the entire Korean Peninsula
By 1953,
there were approx.
516,000 [8]
across the peninsula,
now split in two
_____________________________
[6] American Heritage Dictionary
[7] Estimate according to the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency, 1951
[8] Estimate according to the International Union for Child Welfare, 1954
As the late great
Louis Armstrong
once sang—
Takes two to tango
By 1953,
there were approx.
350,000 [9] Korean
sex workers
south of the
DMZ
many living
and working
in camptowns
providing comfort [10]
to foreign [11]
soldiers
some were abducted
some were drugged
some were told they
would be waitresses
some were orphans
themselves
_____________________________
[9] While the exact total / remains unknown and a point of contention / this number has been corroborated / by multiple scholars and historians
[10] The term comfort women / was first used for Korean sex workers / during the Japanese occupation in WWII
[11] Later used by the US military and UN forces / during the Korean War and thereafter
They called those babies—
Amerasian
By 1965
there were approx.
12,380 [12] mixed-race
orphans
born of war,
scattered
south of the
DMZ
In 1955,
evangelicals [13] arrived at
Portland International Airport
with eight - - - . . mixed-race orphans
“Fear not: for I am with thee:
I will bring thy seed from the East...
Bring my sons from far, and my daughters
from the ends of the earth...” [14]
By 1978,
approx.
4,494 [15] mixed-race
orphans
had been adopted
abroad
_____________________________
[12] Won Moo Hurh, 1972 / cited by Tobias Hubinette
[13] The Holts (Harry & Bertha) were farmers from Oregon / inspired by a documentary film about Amerasian orphans / adopted the eight Korean children / ages ranging from eight months to two years
[14] Isaiah 43:5-7 was included in the stork announcement / of the eight children / currently held in the Smithsonian
[15] Chin Kim and Timothy G. Garroll, 1975 / cited by Tobias Hubinette
What began as
a rescue mission
then turned into
an industry—
200,000 [16] Korean adoptees
approx.
over the span
of sixty seventy years
By 2004,
there were approx.
30,000 [17] designated
as [abandoned]
some were [relinquished]
some were [found]
some were [abducted]
some were [bought] with bribes
call it fraud
call it doctoring
call it falsifying documents
call it playing fast and loose
with subjective objective
truths
_____________________________
[16] Estimate according to AP News, 2024
[17] Ministry of Health and Welfare/ cited by Tobias Hubinette / Korean adoption statistics report 1953-2004
Between 1970 and 1979
there were approx.
46,035 [18] Korean adoptees
sent overseas
Between 1980 and 1989
adoption peaked at
65,511 [19] approx.
By this time,
most adoptees
were considered to be
fully Korean
some were [relinquished] some came from Seoul
some were [found] some came from Daegu
some were [abducted] some came from Busan
some were [bought] with bribes some came from places
they’ll never get a
chance to know..
_____________________________
[18] Ministry of Health and Welfare/ cited by Tobias Hubinette / Korean adoption statistics report 1953-2004
[19] Ibid.
From 1990 to 1999
there were approx.
22,925 [20] Korean adoptees
sent overseas
some were [relinquished] some became French
some were [found] some became Swedish
some were [abducted] some became American
some were [bought] with bribes or at least they
tried to be...
And in 1994,
there were
2,290 [21] Korean adoptees
approx.
close to a dozen arrived
at LaGuardia Airport
on the 28th
of January
and one of them...
_____________________________
[20] Ministry of Health and Welfare/ cited by Tobias Hubinette / Korean adoption statistics report 1953-2004
[21] Ibid.
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_____________________________
[22] ...was me.
Notes
On “Circumstantial Evidence.” The poem is structured as a statistical narrative timeline. It begins by tracing the number of casualties throughout the Korean War, then pivots to tracking the number of adoptions over the many decades following.
While certain facts about the Korean War are common knowledge, the statistical data is based on estimates that have been heavily disputed by scholars and governments alike. Most of the statistical data comes from the following sources:
1. Hahn, Bae-Ho, Kwang-Rin Lee, et al. “Korea | History, Peninsula, Rulers, and Facts.”
Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Sept. 2024, www.britannica.com/place/Korea/Armistice-and-aid.
2. Lopez, C. Todd. “Families of Service Members Gone Missing in Action Get Answers at
Annual Briefing.” U.S. Department of Defense, 15 Aug. 2024,
www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3875464/families-of-service-members-gone-missing-in-action-get-answers-at-annual-briefi/.
3. United Nations Command. “United Nations Command > Organization >
Contributors.” United Nations Command, www.unc.mil/Organization/Contributors.
4. Mao Zedong’s “Order to the Chinese People’s Volunteers,” 1950 | US-China Institute.
china.usc.edu/mao-zedongs-order-chinese-peoples-volunteers-1950.
5. Korean War – Go for Broke. (n.d.-b).
https://goforbroke.org/history/conflict-history/korean-war/
i. Cumings, Bruce (2011). The Korean War: A History. Modern Library. P.
35. ISBN 9780812978964.
6. Publishers, HarperCollins. The American Heritage Dictionary Entry: Orphan.
www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=orphan.
7. Korean adoption history”, in Eleana Kim (ed.), Community. Guide to Korea for
overseas adopted Koreans, Seoul: Overseas Koreans Foundation, 2004, pp. 12-19+25-47. (edited article)
8. Ibid.
9. Cho, Grace M. (2008). Haunting the Korean diaspora : shame, secrecy, and the
forgotten war. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816666461. OCLC 311053574.
i. Lie, John. “The Transformation of Sexual Work in 20th-Century Korea.” Gender and Society, vol. 9, no. 3, 1995, pp. 310–27. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/190058. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.
10. Sang-Hun, Choe. “A Brutal Sex Trade Built for American Soldiers” NY Times (New
York) 2 Mar. 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/world/asia/korea-us-comfort-women-sexual-slavery.html
11. Doolan, Yuri W., 'The Second Rescue', The First Amerasians: Mixed Race Koreans
from Camptowns to America (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 Mar. 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197534380.003.0006, accessed 26 Sept. 2024.
12. Hurh, Won Moo. 1972. “Marginal children of war: An exploratory study of American-
Korean children”. International Journal of Sociology of the Family 2 (3): 10-20.
13. Holt, Bertha | Women of the Hall.
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/bertha-holt/
14. “Stork Announcement for Holt Family Adoptions | Smithsonian Institution.”
Smithsonian Institution, www.si.edu/object/stork-announcement-holt-family-adoptions:nmah_1296338.
15. Kim, Chin, and Timothy G. Carroll. “Intercountry Adoption of South Korean Orphans:
A Lawyer’s Guide.” Journal of Family Law 14, no. 2 (1975)
16. Tong-Hyung, Kim, and Claire Galofaro. “South Koreans Adopted as Babies Are
Discovering Lies From Their Past | AP News.” AP News, 19 Sept. 2024, apnews.com/article/south-korea-international-adoption-fraud-investigation-e4e7d4b8823212e3b260517c5128cd66.
17. Hübinette, Tobias. (PDF) “Appendix - Table 3. Family Background of adopted
Koreans, 1958-2004”, Comforting an Orphaned Nation : Representations of International Adoption and Adopted Koreans in Korean Popular Culture, Departmental of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University, 14 July 2015,
18. Hübinette, Tobias. (PDF) “Appendix - Table 1. Number of international adoptions
from Korea, 1953-2004”, Comforting an Orphaned Nation : Representations of International Adoption and Adopted Koreans in Korean Popular Culture, Departmental of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University, 14 July 2015, www.researchgate.net/publication/277993137_Comforting_an_orphaned_nation_Representations_of_international_adoption_and_adopted_Koreans_in_Korean_popular_culture.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Idid.
22. The last line of the poem appears as the final footnote.
"Circumstantial Evidence" was originally published in VISIBLE Magazine. You can read the original publication here.
