She was involved in the charity relief campaign for the victims of the 1931 China floods , writing a series of short stories describing the plight of refugees , which were broadcast on the radio in the United States and later published in her collected volume '' The First Wife and Other Stories '' . In 1949 , outraged that existing adoption services considered Asian and mixed-race children unadoptable , Buck co-founded Welcome House , Inc. , the first international , interracial adoption agency , along with James A. Michener , Oscar Hammerstein II and his second wife Dorothy Hammerstein . In nearly five decades of work , Welcome House has placed over five thousand children . In 1964 , to support kids who were not eligible for adoption , Buck established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation ( name changed to Pearl S. Buck International in 1999 ) to " address poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries " . In 1964 , she opened the Opportunity Center and Orphanage in South Korea , and later offices were opened in Thailand , the Philippines , and Vietnam . When establishing Opportunity House , Buck said , " The purpose ... is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children , who , because of their birth , are not permitted to enjoy the educational , social , economic and civil privileges normally accorded to children . " In 1960 , after a long decline in health , her husband Richard died . She renewed a warm relation with William Ernest Hocking , who died in 1966 . Buck then withdrew from many of her old friends and quarreled with others . In 1962 Buck asked the Israeli Government for clemency for Adolf Eichmann , the Nazi War Criminal that was complicit in the deaths of five million Jews during WWII . ( Cesarani 2005 , pp . 319 – 320 ) . In the late 1960s , Buck toured West Virginia to raise money to preserve her family farm in Hillsboro , West Virginia . Today The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace is a historic house museum and cultural center . She hoped the house would " belong to everyone who cares to go there " , and serve as a " gateway to new thoughts and dreams and ways of life "
1931 China floods
1931 China floods
Pearl S. Buck