Many viewers of the Netflix hit series Squid Game believe it is based on a true story, with some commentators suggesting it draws inspiration from one of South Korea’s darkest chapters: the Brothers’ Home concentration camp.
Survivors of the facility, who shared their harrowing accounts in the late 1980s, have drawn striking parallels between their experiences and the brutal challenges faced by the characters in the show. These connections have sparked widespread discussions about the potential historical influences behind the series’ chilling narrative.
The Brothers’ Home was an establishment developed by the South Korean government in anticipation of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This initiative encompassed a network of nationwide welfare camps, which were rebranded as educational facilities aimed at workforce preparation. The endeavor’s impetus was the country’s exceptional economic growth, significantly increasing the demand for a more skilled labor force.
These facilities were privately owned but operated with the assistance of law enforcement. In the case of Brothers’ Home, the facility was run by Park In-Kuen and his brother-in-law, Lim Young-soon. Together, they oversaw the operation of this notorious establishment, which has since become a symbol of one of South Korea’s darkest periods.
Real-life abductions like the ones portrayed in Netflix’s Squid Games happened in the late ’80s
One of the most common acts portrayed in Squid Game is that of unexplained disappearances of South Korean citizens. The series shows the fictional contestants being taken to a remote island to “play” games for their lives. But the real-life disappearances are not too far from what is shown in the show.
Han Jong-sun, a survivor from the Brothers’ Home facility, recounted his abduction story in a BBC interview. “A bus stopped in front of the police substation, where he and his sister were after his father left them there for work. He and his sister were forced into the bus”.
The Dark True Story Behind “Squid Game”
In 1986, South Korea’s Brothers Home forced orphans and the homeless into brutal labor, killing those who resisted. Their invisibility ensured no one intervened, reflecting themes of survival and exploitation seen in Squid Game.#netflix… pic.twitter.com/10LShE8wAR
— MAGAgeddon (@MAGAgeddon) January 8, 2025
He went on to explain that they were taken to an unknown location, which turned out to be a welfare center where they stayed for three and a half years. It is also worth noting that the local police were encouraged to “clean the streets,” meaning they were rewarded for sending people to these facilities.
Brothers Home facility was worse than the one portrayed in the show
To understand how brutal Brothers’ Home facility really was, we must first understand that unlike in Netflix’s Squid Games, not all of the inmates were adults. Most individuals detained in the camps during the late 1980s were reportedly children. One similarity to the show, however, comes in the way the camp’s management kept track of the inmates. In both the show and the camp, inmates were tracked by being assigned numbers.
Another similarity between what we see in the show and the real-life facilities in South Korea is their profitability. For instance, the facilities mass-produced goods like toys and sneakers without paying the inmates, meaning high profits. The show’s titular game’s contestants are not expected to produce anything. But since the elites finance the games, it would logically follow that they benefit from their operation in one way or another.
Despite these similarities, and the clear historical significance of the South Korean concentration camps, the show’s creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk has never said facilities like Brothers’ Home were the inspiration for Netflix’s Squid Games. Instead, he credits his own financial struggles and survival game comics as the main inspiration behind the hit series.
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