Trigger Warning: Child Deaths.
If this sensitive subject matter disturbs you, please do not read further.
One KSS Feeder Orphanage’s On-Site Crematorium.
We know that many children died at KSS in Seoul and at its various feeder orphanages. Infant mortality was high under normal circumstances in Korea through the late 1980s - this is part of why Koreans place so much emphasis on the one year celebration of a child’s life, because so many children in Korea’s past died prior to their first birthday - making the one year milestone for surviving children a big deal.
In the overcrowded, underfunded, understaffed, and likely less than clinically sanitary conditions of Korean adoption agencies and orphanages in the heyday years of Korean adoption (1950s - 1988), countless thousands of children likely died in the system. Tragically, because their births were rarely recorded, their deaths often went unrecorded as well.
One adult adoptee, Sooki Jalali, recounted her experience of finding her Korean orphanage’s on site crematorium. You can listen to her story here.
It has recently been discovered that Sooki Jalali’s orphanage was Yangju Baby Home / YangJu Orphanage, which was a known feeder orphanage for KSS. We know of very few Adoptees from this orphanage, however, we do know of a few.