Okay, it’s been pointed out that I missed a Korean holiday. I apologize and will blame it totally on my crazy August schedule. Though truly, I just forgot it.

When I was in school, I studied August 15, 1945 as the day that the Japanese officially surrendered to the Allied nations. I studied it in high school and then again as a part of my history major in college. During that time, I made very little association with what that meant to Korea. Truthfully, when it came to Asian history, I preferred to study ancient history. It fascinated me that that Asian continent had history that went that far back. After all, in the history of my own country, we could only trace things back with any detail to the 1600s.

So, while August 15th was one of those important dates that I memorized for countless tests, I never put it together with what that meant for Korea. August 15, 1945 was Liberation Day for the Koreans (and three years later marked the formation of the Republic of Korea). It was the day that the 35-year occupation of the Japanese was over and the creation of a new republic – doubly important.

Thirty-five years is a long time for an occupation and I have to wonder how many Koreans share some Japanese blood. On several occasions, I have been mistaken for Japanese by the Japanese so I don’t doubt that somewhere in my family tree there might be a Japanese ancestor. The first time was when I first came and the Vietnamese family that my parents had hosted told my mother that I wasn’t a Korean baby, I was a Japanese baby. The second time, a Japanese woman asked my mother how she adopted a Japanese baby. The third time was while I was an exchange student in France and a Japanese tour guide tried to add me to her tour.

It doesn’t bother me very much. How many people in the United States can say their family history only has one ancestry? Every time someone marries in, they bring a whole chain of countries with them. If you took just my family and created a cultural booth for each culture that is in our family tree, we would have a very big international festival.

If you would like to comment, but not on this site, please e-mail me at adoptkoreablog@adoptionmail.com.