Trigger Warning: Disturbing Content.

If you do not wish to learn about the dark side of KSS, then you should not read further.

Seongam Academy.

For those Holt and KSS Adoptees who participated in the September 2022 effort to submit Holt and KSS Adoptees' cases to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of S. Korea, you should know that the original purpose of the TRC was to investigate the major concentration camps of S. Korea. Among these is Seongam Academy / 선감학원 , a notorious concentration camp for boys which in the late 1940s was overseen by KSS Founder Kun Chil Paik (alternately: Baek Geun-chil / Paik, Kun Chil / 백근칠), who was Vice President and later President of Seongam Academy.

Important Update: Please note that we do not know the exact nature of what Seongam Academy was like in the 1940s when KSS Founder Kun Chil Paik (alternately: Baek Geun-chil / Paik, Kun Chil / 백근칠), was Vice President and later President of Seongam Academy. We have recently learned that Seongam Academy may have been at its most notorious in the 1970s, which is decades after KSS Founder Baek Gun Chil was in charge of Seongam Academy. At this time we do not have any documentation to support this claim. When that becomes available, we will include it here.

Below is an article about Korea’s TRC investigation into Seongam Academy:

September 2022:

https://v.daum.net/v/20220926151202736?fbclid=IwAR1qa6pFSLHsoveLNPox5pJruauJ-iCy6KvhHYeaXopIuF-gd4xL87Ph53E

New translation via ChatGPT posted April 9th, 2025:

"The First Shovel Toward the Truth" – Remains Excavation for the Victims of Seongam Academy, Violated by the State

By Park Chang-joo, CBS NoCut News | September 26, 2022, 15:12 KST

Summary:

Excavation began on Sept. 26 in the area of the former Seongam Academy in Ansan

First such excavation related to human rights violations in state-run facilities

On-site investigation conducted ahead of truth commission's October announcement

Full-scale excavation may follow depending on findings

Children were forcibly detained at the facility from Japanese colonial era into the 1980s

“Searching for remains after 40 years—one step closer to the truth”

On the morning of the 26th, excavation began at a suspected burial site in Seongam-dong, Danwon District, Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province, to uncover the truth behind human rights abuses at "Seongam Academy"—long referred to as the "juvenile version of the Samcheong re-education camp." Members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were on-site conducting test excavations.

The 2nd Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has initiated its first on-site test excavation into a mass detention facility-related human rights violation case.

According to the commission, from September 26 to 30, they will carry out a five-day excavation at the site of Seongam Academy (San 37-1, Seongam-dong, Ansan), a former children's detention center that operated from 1946 to 1982 and where victims were subjected to state violence and human rights abuses.

The test excavation will focus on the eastern corner of the site, believed to have a high probability of containing buried remains, using archaeological methods. Covering an area of 900㎡, the team plans to determine gender, age, and time of death of any remains found through anthropological analysis.

If buried remains from the Seongam Academy case are confirmed, the TRC plans to recommend full-scale excavation to the national and local governments. Although initially scheduled for five days, the excavation period may be extended depending on findings.

Before the excavation began, a traditional opening ceremony (Gaetoje) was held to honor the victims. The ceremony included an explanation of the excavation’s purpose, eulogies, offerings, and bows. Speeches were given by Kim Young-bae, chairman of the Seongam Academy Child Victims Committee, Jeong Geun-sik, chair of the TRC, and renowned historical novelist Kim Hoon.

This field investigation comes ahead of the commission’s October decision on the truth of the Seongam Academy child abuse case. It follows a research project conducted from December 2021 to July 2022 by the Pukyong National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, which identified the site as a probable burial location and drafted a mid-to-long-term excavation roadmap.

The goal is to accurately determine the number of victims. There has long been a discrepancy between the number of deaths recorded in academy documents and the actual number of known deaths, which led to continued calls for test excavations.

In a 2018 preliminary study by Gyeonggi Province, it was estimated that about 150 remains could be buried in the area. In 2016, child bones entangled with tree roots and a pair of children’s rubber shoes were found in the Seongam-dong area.

As of May 27, 2021, the TRC has collected testimonies from 190 applicants claiming abuse at Seongam Academy. According to their accounts, children died due to beatings, malnutrition, or drowning while attempting to escape the island. Many were reportedly secretly buried at six locations, including San 37-1 in Seongam-dong.

In connection with this, on July 5, 2022, the Victims Committee submitted a petition requesting the excavation of the victims' remains to both the TRC and local authorities.

Seongam Academy was a detention facility where children and adolescents were forcibly admitted and subjected to state violence and forced labor. It was originally established by the Japanese colonial government in 1942 to train soldiers for the Pacific War and was later run by the Gyeonggi Province government until 1982. According to a Gyeonggi Research Institute survey, among the 4,691 children detained until the facility’s closure, 85.3% were under 13 years old, and 44.9% were under 10.

Out of 381 nationwide sites reviewed in the Pukyong University study, 37—including Seongam Academy—were selected as potential excavation locations. More than 1,800 remains are estimated to be buried at these sites, which are mostly linked to civilian massacres during the Korean War or acts of violence by hostile forces. Of these, the Seongam Academy case is the only one classified as a human rights abuse incident.

During the 1st TRC (2007–2010), 1,617 sets of remains were recovered in 13 excavation operations at 10 sites across the country, including the cobalt mine in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province.

On the morning of the 26th, victims and families stood in silence at the suspected burial site in Seongam-dong.

TRC Chair Jeong Geun-sik stated, “This test excavation of the suspected burial site, 40 years after Seongam Academy's closure, brings us one step closer to uncovering the truth,” adding that they will soon announce the results of their investigation and recommend full excavation and memorial projects to the relevant authorities.”

Screencapture of Article (Korean) (PDF)

From KSS History:

1949: Kun Chil Paik (alternately: Baek Geun-chil / Paik, Kun Chil / 백근칠) was a public official at the Kyung-gi (Gyeonggi) provincial government and his position in 1949 was the head of the notorious (Trigger Warning: Very Upsetting Content) Seongam Academy (선감학원 ).

  • Source: Various

1940s: KSS Founder Kun Chil Paik (alternately: Baek Geun-chil / Paik, Kun Chil / 백근칠) is high ranking amongst the Japanese under occupation. Kun Chil Paik is appointed by the Korean government as Vice President and later President of (Trigger Warning: Very Upsetting Content) Seongam Academy (선감학원 ), a notorious concentration camp originally founded by the Japanese in 1942 on an island in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul. Seongam Academy was a place for “vagrant” boys from the streets which was a part of the Korean government’s “social purification” efforts.