A few mothers bring their week-old infants to the
orphanage and tearfully leave them, knowing that they cannot care for
themselves, much less feed the child. Some children are left deserted
by their mothers on the doorstep or even behind the orphanage where
the child may freeze to death before being found, Drake said. “GIs bring
in children, too,” he said.
“One night I was called to the barbed wire fence
to the rear of the company area to investigate a crying child. It turned
out to be a small girl of 9 or 10 years. Cry she would, but talk she
would not. “One of the houseboys said that she had been sitting there
since early morning (it was then 9 p.m. and that she had told one of
them she was an orphan and wanted food. We took her in and in the morning
took her to the orphanage.”
Drake said it was learned she had been living with
a brother near an Army post. When the Army unit moved out, the boy
who had been a houseboy there, had to look elsewhere for food for himself
and his little sister. One day he went out and did not return. When
hunger got the best of her, she “hit the road,” and that was when we
found her, he said.
(Photo Caption) Korean children “model” some of the
clothing sent to them at the Seoul Sanatorium and Hospital Orphanage
via the United States. Monterey Peninsula College students are now
sponsoring their second drive to assist children in war-torn Korea.
KOC-114
