"My mother's family is my family, too."

Joshua Birrer, a 19-year-old Swiss youth who visited the Taepyeong-dong area of Jinhae-gu, Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on the morning of September 17, explained this as the reason why he is inquiring about his mother's Korean family.

His backpack was packed with flyers boldly printed with the phrase, "Looking for Cha Il-suk's Korean family."

The flyers featured both a recent photo and a childhood picture of his mother, Cha Il-suk.

The person he is searching for is the biological family of Cha, who left South Korea as a child and was adopted by a Swiss family.

After visiting Jinhae for the first time with his mother in 2022, Birrer has been returning to the area every year to look for traces of her family.

He said, "My mother is exhausted from coming here for years without finding her identity. I want to visit various institutions and distribute flyers myself to figure out the circumstances of my mother's birth."

Residents who received the flyers around the Namwon Rotary area that day said they would show the photos to people around them and ask if anyone knew Cha.

Kwon, a 54-year-old convenience store owner in the neighborhood, said, "He came all this way to find his Korean family, and it is only right that we help," immediately laminating a flyer and posting it on the store wall.

Birrer plans to stay in Jinhae-gu for a while to continue distributing flyers and visiting institutions.

Before heading out to the streets that day, Birrer also visited the former Jinhae Orphanage, where his mother spent her childhood.

The location has now been converted into a rehabilitation center.

Birrer asked officials at the rehabilitation center whether any additional records had been confirmed since his previous visit and where the past records had been transferred.

He hoped there would be more records shedding light on the circumstances of how his mother first came to the place, but the response was that the previously confirmed materials were all they had.

The rehabilitation center stated that past records were digitized and transferred to the National Center for the Rights of the Child, and that all materials in their possession were provided during his previous visit.

An official at the rehabilitation center explained, "We should naturally help if there is anything we can do, but there are no additional records and we cannot get in touch with past staff members, making it difficult to find a way to help."

The life in Korea of the mother Birrer is looking for remains partially documented in records from about 60 years ago.

According to the records he secured, Cha is estimated to have been born in Jinhae on October 25, 1964.

There is also a record that she was found near the Jinhae City Hall on November 26 of the same year and handed over to the Jinhae Orphanage.

Cha lived at the orphanage and moved to Switzerland in December 1968, after which she was adopted by a local family.

She currently lives in Switzerland as a music and piano teacher.

However, how she got her name and exactly where she was found remain unresolved questions.

A white dress sent to Cha while she was at the orphanage in 1967 is another clue he is holding onto.

Birrer said, "There is a record that a white dress was sent to the orphanage, and both the sender and the receiver are listed as 'Cha Il-suk.' Although they say there are no records, I believe there is still more to be found."

He added, "DNA tests are of great help these days. If there are residents from Jinhae or Changwon who want to take a DNA test, I will connect them so they can get tested."

(Photo: Yonhap News)