美国国家公共电台 NPR--South Korea sets up a Truth and Reconciliation commission to investigate adoptions

South Korea sets up a Truth and Reconciliation¹ commission to investigate adoptions²

Transcript⁴

South Korea says it will investigate hundreds of adoptions out of the country that may have involved fake records. NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Kaomi Lee, one adoptee whose case is under review.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

South Korea has set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. One of its goals is to investigate adoptions that took place while the country was under authoritarian⁵ rule. Adoptees around the world say private adoption³ agencies in South Korea faked documents to make children look like orphans⁶ when they actually had living parents. Korean American journalist Kaomi Lee is one adoptee whose case is under review. She was adopted by a white American family more than 50 years ago. She has since discovered that her adoption story is not what she was led to believe. And she's spent the last several years looking for answers.

KAOMI LEE: There is this common adoption narrative⁸ that our parents tell and tell us and our community tells us, that you are lucky to be here and you should be grateful, and also that you previously⁹ had a bad life and you came to a good life. I think we find that these stories about us being orphans, about not having parents and needing, you know, someone to care for us and a family - we actually find, through researching our own stories, talking to others, and now with this kind of formal examination of cases, that these stories were not always true. And now there is implications that adoption agencies falsified records and manufactured identities.

MARTIN: Do you know anything about your birth parents at this point?

LEE: Fifty years of my life - nothing. Of course, my paperwork that had came with me has an orphan⁷ registry that was created by the adoption agency. There's no parents listed. They were like ghosts growing up. And if you think about your story and the first 10 pages or the first hundred pages are missing, and it's something you don't get to know. It's something you accept growing up. But I was disturbed that through DNA¹⁰, I discovered a half sister who was also adopted. In her case, she was adopted to Denmark. We met last year. She's about 10 years younger than I am. And in her file, there was some information about her parents, and we have a shared father. And that's when I discovered that he had been alive until about 10 years ago.

MARTIN: Wow.

LEE: And so that's kind of devastating¹¹, as, you know, someone who's, you know, around 50 years old, to realize that the story that they had been told had been a fabrication and that there had been a living parent at the time of my adoption - at least one. It begs the question, did that parent even consent to having me be sent overseas and, you know, basically vanish from Korea? I don't know. And that question will never be answered because he's now deceased.

MARTIN: There are allegations of, you know, switching babies' identities to make it look like they didn't have parents. Can you expand on that? What lengths were taken to ship these children out of South Korea?

LEE: Koreans all get a family registry. It's called a hoju. And it's essentially¹² your family tree. And it puts you in Korean society officially, on paper, on the record. What's happened with Korean adoptees is the Korean private agencies created fake hojus. It's like a manufactured identity where they'll put a name, a birth date - it might not even be our true details - but under parents, it's blank. It's a way to isolate¹³ us out of Korean society, as if we'd never existed. And I think this is very damning because under further examination, I hope that the body will actually conclude that this was a systematic¹⁴ program to make 200,000 children disappear from society. We have been created new...

MARTIN: Why? Why did they want children to disappear?

LEE: I think part of it is perhaps you're talking about authoritarian regimes who had this kind of mandate¹⁵ that they wanted to purify the race and make sure that there were not unwanteds - children of mixed race, you know, American GIs and Korean women - one category. Children of single mothers - that's another category of not respectable or children that they wanted to keep around. And so it was a system of erasing¹⁶ people. And I think it's social engineering where it's dictating¹⁷ what kinds of people can be Korean and shipping¹⁸ out or removing people who didn't fit the profile that they wanted for Koreans.

There's another reason for it, though, which is U.S. immigration policy requires for Americans to adopt orphans. If they're going to adopt a foreign child from South Korea, that child has to be an orphan. It's almost like supply and demand. And so the Korean private agencies, under very little or no regulation themselves, sprang into action and created what the West demanded, and that was an orphan.

MARTIN: You have talked to all these other people who share at least this part of your experience of being adopted from South Korea and having this - these holes in their knowledge. What kind of guidance do you give others about how to live with not knowing the full truth of who you are and how you came to be?

LEE: If nothing else, adoptees are resilient. We have learned to go forward in life and even though perhaps we are missing the beginning pages of our story, to go out and try to live full lives. But it's something that you know has always been missing from yourself. And you have been able to go out and live without this very, you know, primal¹⁹ part of yourself. But I think it's something that is an ache that - like, you never really feel whole. But I do think that that is something that Korean adoptees should have the right to know - who our natural identities are and the people we came from. And until that right is restored to us, I think we'll always be living with this part of ourselves that can be a source of pain.

MARTIN: Korean American journalist Kaomi Lee. Her adoption is one of hundreds that will be investigated by South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Thank you so much for talking with us.

LEE: Thank you for having me.

1 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

2 adoptions   

n.采用，收养( adoption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Adoption agencies are always so open to alternative family adoptions. 领养中介机构永远都对领养家庭敞开。 来自电影对白
• The number of adoptions has grown in the past year. 去年，收养子女的数字增加了。 来自互联网

3 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

6 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

7 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

8 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

9 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

10 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

11 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

12 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

13 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

14 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

15 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

16 erasing   

v.擦掉( erase的现在分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He was like a sponge, erasing the past, soaking up the future. 他象一块海绵，挤出过去，吸进未来。 来自辞典例句
• Suddenly, fear overtook longing, erasing memories. 突然，恐惧淹没了渴望，泯灭了回忆。 来自辞典例句

17 dictating   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
• Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句

18 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

19 primal   

adj.原始的；最重要的

参考例句：

• Jealousy is a primal emotion.嫉妒是最原始的情感。
• Money was a primal necessity to them.对于他们，钱是主要的需要。