Brothers Home

Social cleansing and welfare Throughout the 1950s, the Republic of Korea struggled to recover from the devastation of the Korean War. and these policies were expanded to cover the detention of general vagrants. which required municipalities and their local police departments to form "vagrant patrol teams", which would conduct regular patrols at least once a month. Ministry of Home Affairs Directive No. 410 defined vagrants as those who "prevent a healthy social order in cities and society." This ambiguous definition allowed local authorities to autonomously decide who was classified as a vagrant and who was not. Likewise, the city of Busan and its local police arrested and detained numerous people who were seen on the streets, including panhandlers, abandoned or orphaned children, and the disabled as vagrants. Brothers Home began business as an orphanage under the name "Brothers Orphanage" (). As the orphanage expanded in size, it transformed into an accommodation center for general vagrants in the early 70s. In July 1975, Brothers Home signed a contract with the city of Busan and became one of its official vagrant detention facilities. Subsequently, Brothers Home relocated to Jurye-dong. This crackdown on vagrancy was intensified as rebranding efforts were taken place by the South Korean government in preparation for the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympics. On April 10, 1981, upon receiving a report from Military Security Command on the status of panhandling among disabled citizens, then-President Chun Doo-Hwan ordered Prime Minister Nam Duck-woo to "crack down on begging and take protective measures for vagrants." In October 6, Chun ordered Nam to "make sure no panhandlers are on the streets of Seoul" before the 1988 Olympics. ==Discovery of human rights abuses==

Investigations In August 1982, a man with the surname Kang submitted a petition asking the government and police to investigate his brother's mistreatment while held at Brothers Home. The case was handled by the , which arranged a meeting between Kang and Park In-geun, who had been the director of the center since 1977. Park took legal action against Kang for false accusation, and Kang was sentenced to eight months in prison on December 23, 1982. Kim discovered that the workshop, which was located on a mountain in Ulju County, Ulsan, was operating under orders from Park In-geun, director of Brothers Home. It concluded that, of the 3,975 inmates who were present at the center in 1986, 3,117 had been brought in by police, and 258 by county officials. From 2022 to 2024, the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission conducted a series of three investigations into the incident. Beatings and torture Subsequent investigations into the incident revealed that the inmates at Brothers Home were subjected to serious violations of human rights, including arbitrary detention, enforced labor, torture, and sexual violence. To reduce administrative costs, one inmate was chosen as the "commander" of the facility, working directly under director Park In-geun. Under the commander, 120 vagrants were grouped into a single residence as one "platoon." Children and adolescents of Brothers often became victims of sexual violence by platoon officers. A small number of victims, labeled as 'ttongti' (stemming from "ttong", which translates to excrement) became the primary victims of same-sex sexual violence. The 2022 Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigation reported that, based on a comprehensive analysis, including all newly discovered death records from 1975 to 1988, a total of 657 people had died in the center. The AP further revealed that six U.S. adoption agencies—Holt International, Children's Home Society of Minnesota, Dillon International, Children's Home Society of California, Catholic Social Services, and Spence-Chapin—had received adoptees from Brothers. South Korea's Korean Broadcasting System reported on the case of the Korean girl Kim Yooree who was taken away from her biological Korean parents and adopted to a French couple where she was raped and molested by her French adopted father. Across Australia, Europe and the United States, the majority-female Korean adoptees asked for an investigation from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the child trafficking scandal. ==Aftermath==

Trial of Park In-geun Park In-geun was prosecuted on several charges including embezzlement and illegal confinement. On June 23, 1987, the initially ruled Park guilty on all charges and sentenced him to ten years in imprisonment and a 681 million won fine. A revised bill was introduced in the next National Assembly by Jin and 72 sponsors in 2016, but also died in committee. The revised bill expanded the scope from the original bill to other social welfare centers. Many survivors have sued the government since May 2021. In January 2024, the court awarded the 13 survivors the total of 4.535 billion won of the 8 billion won requested. Each received 75 million to 420 million won. The state and the survivors both appealed, but the ruling was upheld by appeals court and in March 2025 the Supreme court, cementing the result. Survivor protests In 2012, Hahn Jong-seon began a year-long protest in front of South Korea's National Assembly by himself. He held up signs detailing the abuse he endured, along with a photo of him at the age of nine. With the support of human rights groups, more protests began across the country. Hahn Jong-seon, along with another survivor and a human rights activist, wrote a book titled Saranameun ai: urineun eotteoke gongmojaga doeeonna (The Child Who Survived: How We All Become an Accomplice) that attracted public attention. In April 2015 survivors shaved their heads as a demonstration, and in December, Hahn Jong-seon began a hunger strike. September 2017 survivors walked 500 kilometers from the Brothers Home site in Busan to the Blue House in Seoul, which took 2 months. November 2017 survivors began a sit-in in front of the National Assembly building. ==Involvement of the Protestant Church==

Survivors of Brothers Home have alleged close cooperation between the camp and the Protestant Church. One former inmate reported being forced to perform in Christian plays for local and international guests and given Easter eggs as rewards. Another was sent to the camp by a Christian missionary. Another survivor described the church and the camp as a business operation run by Pastor Lim Young-soon and Director Park In-geun, with children forced to work and run an on-premises Korean adoption operation, ==Footnotes==