Ask any child in Korea what the date June 25 signifies and they may give you a blank stare. But any mention of May 5 will be met with smiles and excitement. Why? Because May 5 is Children's Day, a national holiday reserved for the celebration of children and the youth and innocence they embody. The Korean Children's Day was created by the children's writer and storyteller Bang Jung Hwan in 1923 as a way to instill a sense of independence and national pride in children. Bang had noticed the low status that the Korean culture — based on Confucian ideals of placing value on age and maturity — placed on children and so wrote an "An Open Letter to Adults," which...