Seoul, South Korea, October 1960: Yong Kun (Tex) Kim enjoys a piece of cake at the USO in Seoul. Found wandering the streets alone, the 8-year-old orphaned boy was being cared for by personnel of the USO Seoul.

Stars and Stripes’ Pacific archives house many images of South Korean children affected by the Korean War. Many are of orphans living in homes founded and/or funded by either U.S. servicemembers or the United Nations. Also found in our archives are images of so-called “Unit Mascots,” children orphaned by the war who were “adopted” by U.S. military units. The children would live on base or in camp with the unit and were often outfitted in smaller versions of the unit’s uniform. Unfortunately, we know little to nothing of what happened to them.

Looking for Stars and Stripes’ historic coverage, including that on so-called “Unit Mascots”? Subscribe to Stars and Stripes’ historic newspaper archive. We have digitized our 1948-1999 European and Pacific editions, as well as several of our WWII editions and made them available online through https://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/