Korea Times Article:
“Survivors of Seongam Academy Fight To Regain Confidence, Confront Past”
Posted to Paperslip on April 29th, 2025.
Shared with permission of Jack Greenberg.
See original article for photos.
TRIGGER WARNING:
Paperslip Note: Seongam Academy is amongst the major concentration camps of Korea—the other major ones being Samcheong Education Corps and Brothers Home (Busan). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea (TRC / TRCK) was set up between 2020-2025 mainly to investigate these major concentration camps, and was never originally intended to investigate Overseas Adoption. However, there is broad overlap especially between issues concerning Brothers Home and Overseas Adoption. As well, KSS (Korea Social Service) Founder Kun Chil Paik (Alternately: Baek Geun-chil / Paik, Kun Chil / 백근칠) was the former Vice President and President of Seongam Academy, a major concentration camp for boys, in the 1940s, prior to his founding of KSS in 1964. Please note that Seongam Academy was likely at its most notorious as a concentration camp for “vagrant” boys in the 1970s, and that we do not have much information about what Seongam Academy was like in the 1940s when KSS Founder Kun Chil Paik was the administrative head there.
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“Survivors of Seongam Academy fight to regain confidence, confront past
A photo of Seongam Academy from 1956 is on display at the Seongam History Museum in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, April 8. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg
By Jack Greenberg
Published Apr 30, 2025 3:20 AM KST
Updated Apr 30, 2025 3:20 AM KST
Editor’s note
This article is the second in a series of three on truth and reconciliation issues related to Korea's modern history. —ED.
ANSAN, Gyeonggi Province — More than four decades after Seongam Academy shut its doors, the long road to healing has only recently begun for its survivors.
Cheon Jong-su, 69, who spent six years and eight months confined in the notorious facility, has carried the trauma with him ever since. “Thinking about the past has made not just me, but all of the survivors cry a lot,” he said. “We try to forget, but the memories keep coming back. It’s still very painful.”
What began as a fight for recognition of the truth has since evolved into a struggle for a full state apology and the complete implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) recommendations, following its comprehensive investigation into the case.
A legacy rooted in colonial control
Korea’s dark history of institutionalizing children labeled as “vagrants” and their systemic abuse in group confinement facilities dates back to the 1910-45 Japanese colonial period. Amid the influx of rural migrants to cities and rising urban poverty, the governor-general issued ordinances in 1923 and 1942 that empowered authorities to remove children as young as 8 under the pretense of maintaining public order. However, the vague criteria gave authorities discretion to arbitrarily detain juveniles — often street workers, the poor or the homeless.
After liberation, the chaos of postwar Korea, compounded by the return of migrants from other parts of Japan's empire and the collapse of the primary sector, further exacerbated the issue. Unemployment was rampant, and many children ran away from homes where they were deprived of care. The growing number of orphans and runaway children led to mass roundups becoming common. By 1956, ministries under the Syngman Rhee administration jointly reported on measures to eradicate vagrancy, continuing the colonial perspective of viewing impoverished children as potential criminals rather being in need of state welfare or care.
Yet, even as these children were rounded up for “rehabilitation,” the government failed to allocate the funds necessary for their care. Instead, the Korea Social Work Foundation, a private organization, collected public donations. Still, children in welfare facilities lacked basic necessities and suffered from hunger, overcrowding, neglect and abuse.
Seongam Academy: A symbol of systematic abuse
Seongam Academy, located on an island in Ansan, was purchased by the Social Work Association of Gyeonggi Province in 1941 and began housing children the next year. Its initial mission was to mold its wards into human resources ready to die in service in Japan's war. Some were forcibly mobilized for military service and dispatched to a coal mine in Gangwon Province.
U.S. forces were stationed on the island during the Korean War, and in April 1954, 41 new buildings were constructed for Seongam Academy under the U.S. Armed Forces Assistance for Korea program, on the understanding they would house mostly war orphans. The following year, a funding agreement was signed with the Korea-America Foundation to operate Seongam Academy as a provincial child care facility. Stone steps and a few buildings, some now located on private farming properties, are all that remain of Seongam Academy today.
Cheon Jong-su climbs stone steps dating back to the 1950s at the former site of Seongam Academy in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, April 8. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg
Admissions again surged following the military coup of May 16, 1961, as the new regime introduced legislation under the banner of social welfare.
Children like Cheon, however, were often taken simply for being out alone. In his testimony to the TRC, he recounted being approached at Seoul Station in 1965 by a plainclothes government officer after arriving alone on a tram. Following instructions from his older brother, he had come to find his sisters, who worked in a factory. The officer offered to help, but instead took him to the police. He spent two years at the Seoul Metropolitan Child Protection Center, and was transferred to Seongam Academy at the age of 12.
A 2020 survey of former detainees revealed staggering statistics: 98 percent were subjected to forced labor, working an average of six days and nine hours per week. Cheon recalled how he and fellow children were forced to harvest oysters, tend salt farms and engage in sericulture on empty stomachs while being abused. Nearly all reported long-term trauma and poverty. Almost half had been molested, and more than half, Cheon among them, had been forced to handle the corpses of deceased peers — a grim warning against attempting escape. In violation of regulations, children under 7 and adults over 18 were also detained. Through it all, they were not provided adequate education.
“Many of the survivors cannot read Hangul,” Cheon explained. “They never continued their education afterward. With the support of Gyeonggi Province, we began literacy classes last year.”
When Seongam Academy was finally shut down in 1982, Gyeonggi Province had long known that it was operating beyond its authorized scope. Yet its closure was not the result of a public reckoning, but rather internal concerns, including lax management, unmotivated and poorly trained staff, the facility’s remote location and the failure to appoint a new trustee to take over operations. When it closed, 86 children remained confined; many were transferred to other institutions or sent home, with no restitution or acknowledgment of the harm they had endured.
Cheon Jong-su walks toward one of the few buildings remaining at the former site of Seongam Academy in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, April 8. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg
A long-delayed apology
In 2022, 40 years after its closure, Gyeonggi Gov. Kim Dong-yeon issued an official apology to its survivors, pledging medical services and living stipends. A trauma healing center was established in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and by 2024, eligibility for support expanded to include individuals detained as early as 1942. By the first quarter of that year, 204 survivors were receiving assistance, up from 123 the year prior. However, the support is limited to Gyeonggi residents, with survivors from other regions excluded.
"Gyeonggi Province provides only a modest living support fund of 200,000 won to its residents but claims it cannot provide the same to non-Gyeonggi residents," Lee Hyang-rim, the head trauma specialist working with Seongam victims, noted at the National Assembly on Friday. "This division, along with differences between those who have received decisions from the TRC and those who have not, has splintered the victim community."
Lee Hyang-rim, head trauma specialist working with Seongam victims, speaks at the National Assembly in Seoul, April 25. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg
Survivors argue that more inclusive measures must be taken to ensure proper support for all victims and prevent further divisions.
Cheon told The Korea Times that trauma programs, including group counseling, aromatherapy and drama therapy, have helped some. “We started to feel more confident again. Now we feel a greater sense of responsibility in what we’re doing,” he said.
These programs have since been paused due to a temporary lack of funding. While they are expected to resume once funding is secured, a long-term commitment is needed.
Cheon remains deeply frustrated by public officials’ indifference. “They’re representatives of the people, but they act like it has nothing to do with them. If they came here, they’d understand the human rights violations we experienced,” he said. “What we want is a sincere, heartfelt apology from the national government.”
Standing at a display highlighting the museum’s progress at the former site, Cheon recalled how long it took to arrange an apology from Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, only for it to be canceled following his resignation in the wake the Dec. 3 martial law declaration. Now, with a presidential election upcoming, it feels like starting from scratch.
An exhumation site at the former location of Seongam Academy in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, April 8. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg
Excavations and the fight for truth
Excavations in 2022–23 uncovered the remains of 35 children, with an additional 150 graves identified in a 2024 survey. With no action from the central government, Gyeonggi Province stepped in to exhume and analyze all remains, pledging to take responsibility for their cremation and enshrinement.
Jeon Jae-hee, a member of the Investigation and Research Team at Gyeonggi History and Cultural Heritage Institute, said that excavations are expected to conclude this month. “Decomposition and the time that has passed are major obstacles," Jeon said. "Most of what we’ve uncovered are teeth, and these have not yet been confirmed as belonging to victims of the institution. Forensic analysis and DNA testing will be necessary.”
Gov. Kim has vowed to seek reimbursement from the central government for the excavation not out of fiscal concern, he said, but “to force them to wake up to the situation.”
Although the Gyeonggi provincial government administered Seongam Academy, it did not do so alone. The authoritarian national government dictated social control policies and oversaw state-run institutions like Seongam.
"Currently, around 200 victims of Seongam are undergoing civil trials in 20 different court divisions, with the defendants being Gyeonggi Province and the Republic of Korea. Since there are two defendants, they are passing blame onto each other," Lee said.
Toward a special law
In addition to the apology, Cheon said survivors are advocating for a special law to achieve substantive restoration of honor for both the survivors and their families. In December, a bill was introduced in the National Assembly with 23 bipartisan co-sponsors, proposing the creation of a committee under the Prime Minister’s Office to determine victim status, provide compensation and support memorial efforts related to Seongam Academy. This proposal echoes the recommendations of the TRC, which has already identified over 4,600 detainees through facility records.
Cheon Jong-su, second from left, and fellow survivors of Seongam Academy gather at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday, for a debate on the future of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Courtesy of Jack Greenberg
A question of equity
Survivors of Seongam Academy are not alone, though their experiences remain uniquely harrowing. Survivors from other facilities are calling for separate legislation tailored to their specific histories, even amid mounting debates over the future of the TRC. In Busan, survivors of the Brothers Home and its predecessors, Yeonghwasuk and Jaeseungwon, have faced significant cuts to their support budgets. Meanwhile, politicians are concerned about setting compensation precedents and maintaining fairness. In response, a proposed amendment to the TRC Basic Law, introduced in August 2024, recommends a unified framework for compensating all victims of state violence.
For Seongam Academy survivors, the time for abstract debate has long passed. With the average age of survivors now over 60, many are focusing their efforts on passing a special law that would provide them with the recognition, compensation and memorialization they deserve.
Jack Greenberg works as a consultant, researcher and freelance writer. His current focus is on heritage and conservation issues, historical memory debates, truth-seeking and reconciliation and civilian massacres of the 1950-53 Korean War. He was the recipient of the Global Korea Scholarship and earned a master's in international studies at Korea University. He is also an alum of McGill University in Canada.”