I read “ Dream Child ” , the last article of book “East and West ”.
An American soldier had sexual intercourse with a girl in South Korea and then returned to the United States. The girl wrote letter to him informing him that she had given birth to a son and attached photos. When he went to South Korea to pick up the child, he found that the girl had not given birth, and the child in the photo was someone else's child. After returning to the United States, he told his fiancee that, and the fiancée believed they should bring back this dream child.
1) (A) Faye asked Martin Baynes to watch an opera “ Madame Butterfly”. Faye, twenty years old, she had lived in the shelter. Martin thirty years old, he had been found on the steps of a church not more than two weeks old. The minister had picked him up and had taken him to the orphanage. When he was sixteen , he left the orphanage. He worked with the minister’s father, Roger Walters, hardware business in Philadelphia. He served two years in Korea .
Four years ago, he returned Korea for a month’s vacation. He had met a girl only a week before he had been discharged from the service. However, he had found no trace of the girl he remembered. Instead there had been another girl , Minyi, with whom he spent six days .When he came home again he began to fall in love with Faye.
In the brief days spent with Minyi, a child had been born, a son, whom he had never seen. But Minyi had sent photographs over the years. Now more than three years old .He had named the boy Marty.
He was a solemn chap. The boy, his son, whom he had not been able to explain to Faye, he must explain before ask her to marry him. How could he explain to her that which he could scarcely understand in himself .He felt the old vague agony sweep over him .
Martin and Faye arrived at the theater. Martin found himself drawn into the opera. He felt a return of the old agony. If Minyi had been like Madame Butterfly? Minyi was too untaught , too poor , but she had taken care of the boy, she had been a good mother.He owed her much.
(B)Two weeks later Martin was in Korea. He recognized Minyi’s house.He stepped into the door. He asked Minyi : where is Marty? Minyi said: He died ten days. Martin shouted at her: I don’t believe you,you’ve hidden him. where are his clothes? She said: I give away his friend - very nice boy- poor mother like me, American GI father go Stateside.-he no send money-
“Did no one see him dead?”
“My girl friend”.
“Where is his grave”? “ No grave, just take away”
He went back to the hotel and sobbed. Then he sat down to think: Perhaps Minyi was still lying. Perhaps her girl friend would tell him the truth. He must talk to someone else who had seen Marty when he was a baby. Certain of death.
In the morning, he took a cab, arrived in the lane he had visited yesterday. A few children played.They were all older than Marty would have been. There beside Minyi’s door a small boy in a red sweater he had sent Marty, playing in the mud. He walked toward him. He stopped and looked into the child’s face. Of course he knew the face. It was the one he watched change from a baby to a boy. At that moment, a door opened, a young woman came out.
“Where is his mother?” he demanded.
The woman said: “ me his mother”
“ Minyi is not his mother?”
“ Minyi no gotta boy. You her husband? She take my boy for picture to you. She too poor, sick, no catch GI”
Marty was only a dream child. He would have to tell Faye about him. He turned away . He must go home. He heard the woman’s voice: “ You take this boy, fifty dollar.”
(C) He and Faye were sitting in their favorite restaurant. He had told her baldly, hiding nothing. She had listened in silence. Could she understand? He asked: “ Faye, do you will marry me”? Faye said calmly:“ Of course. Because I understand how it happened. Do you think we should leave the little boy there — with a woman who doesn’t want him? On our honeymoon we’ll go and bring him home.”
He gave a great sigh. The load slipped away. Marty, the child who never was, was lost forever in the shadows of non existence.
2) I think: Many US military personnel stationed abroad have had sexual intercourse with local women and have left behind illegitimate children. Many women sell themselves out because of poverty. Many illegitimate children are discriminated against. This is a sad and painful thing.
This article is in sharp contrast to the previous one “To Whom a Child Is Born”.
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A Few Statistics on Amerasian Children
Born During WWII, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War
As I read “Dream Child,” I grew curious regarding the numbers of Amerasian children born to American servicemen and Asian women during the latter half of the 20th Century and consulted several sources, finding rather sketchy estimates, but the overall impression is that there were thousands.
The information given below appears online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerasian.
World War II
Japan: The actual number of Amerasian children born during the U.S. occupation of Japan between 1945 and 1952 is unknown. But estimates suggest between 5,000 and 10,000. Officially, the number of 10,000 is given as the upper limit.
Philippines: According to a Wikipedia article updated in January 2024, the United States had military bases in the Philippines between 1898 and 1992. When these bases closed in 1992, it is reported that thousands of Amerasian children were left behind. An estimated 52,000 Amerasians are in the Philippines today. Studies done by the University of the Philippines Center for Women’s Studies found that many Amerasians have experienced some form of abuse and/or domestic violence. The study cited cases of racial, gender, and class discrimination that Amerasian children and youth suffer from strangers, peers, classmates, and teachers. The study also said that black Amerasians tend to suffer more from racial and class discrimination than their white-descended counterparts.
Korean Conflict
Tens of thousands of mixed-race Korean babies were sent to the U.S for adoption after the war. It is not clear how many fathers were American service men.
Vietnam War
Vietnam: “The exact number of Amerasians in Vietnam is not known. The U.S. soldiers stationed in Vietnam had relationships with local females, many of the women had origins in clubs, brothels and pubs. The American Embassy once reported there were fewer than 1,000 Amerasians. A report by the South Vietnamese Senate Subcommittee suggested there are 15,000 to 20,000 children of mixed American and Vietnamese ancestry, but this figure was considered low.[42] Congress estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Amerasians by 1975 lived in Vietnam.[43] According to Amerasians Without Borders, they estimated about 25,000 to 30,000 Vietnamese Amerasians were born from American first participation in Vietnam in 1962… until 1975.[44] “
Cambodia: As many as 10,000 Amerasian children were born.
Laos: The official number of Amerasian children born is unknown.
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Introduction: Our story for this month returns to important themes in the author’s life and literary works that have become very familiar: Her belief in the unity and equality of all human beings and the need of all people to acknowledge this truth. In “Dream Child,” we see again her concern for racially mixed children who were considered unadoptable for many generations and her call to the world to take responsibility for their care. This she called “the most important work a society could do. She felt that a nation defined itself in the way it treated children, especially children who carried the stigma of illegitimacy, or handicap, or minority status” (Conn, Peter. Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography. (314).
?It was this belief that led her to establish Welcome House in 1949, where she housed racially mixed children who were neglected by other agencies, hiring a local couple to take care of the children temporarily while she worked to find permanent parents for them. She was also motivated to take up this task by personal experience. She herself had adopted five children and was “an outspoken advocate for adoption” (Conn 312). The latter prompted many to contact her—those who wanted to adopt and those who wanted to place children for adoption. In December 1948, Pearl received a letter asking her to help place a 15-month-old racially mixed boy rejected by the families of both parents. Pearl brought the boy to her home and became acutely aware of his suffering. Only a few days later, another racially mixed child arrived—this time a newborn. At 56, Pearl felt that she was too old to adopt a newborn and called one agency after another, trying to place both children, but no one would accept them, offering the old excuse that they were not adoptable. At this point, she decided that she would form her own agency—Welcome House-- and eventually sought the aid of famous people in her community to serve on its board. As Peter Conn rightly acknowledges, here we see the humanitarian, author, and activist at her best. She identified a social and moral problem and contrived a solution that was simple, humane, and effective. To use a cliché, the rest is history.
Discussion Prompts
1. How effective are the opening pages of “Dream Child”? Do they prepare readers for what lies ahead? How? What might be the author’s purpose in opening the story as she did? What might she have been trying to achieve?
2. What are some of the things that motivate Martin to return to Korea to find Minyi and his son?
3. Is Martin a believable character? Were you surprised by his decision to adopt the child?
4. Which character in “Dream Child” most closely resembles the author? How so?
5. Is Faye a believable character?
6. Are Faye and Martin well matched?
7. How does the title of the story work to complicate and enhance the story’s effectiveness?
8. What is the saddest moment in the story?
9. Does Buck’s portrayal of the Korean women who fraternize with American GIs seem harsh?
10. Is this story believable?
11. What is your overall reaction to “Dream Child” vis a vis “To Whom a Child Is Born”?
