Posted on : 2024-10-16 17:03 KST Modified on : 2024-10-16 17:03 KST
An estimated 50,000 Koreans in Hiroshima and 20,000 in Nagasaki were exposed to radiation during the US’ atomic bombings — with an estimated 40,000 dead
Hiroshima after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city on Aug. 6, 1945. (courtesy of the Korea Atomic Bombs Victims Association)
“Neither the US nor Japan have apologized to the Koreans who were victimized.”
These are the words of Kim Jin-ho, 78, chair of the Hiroshima Prefecture Association for Korean Atomic Bomb Survivors, who has mixed feelings about the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a confederation of survivors and victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
“The US, who dropped the atomic bombs, is not the only party at fault here. It was Japan that forcibly mobilized countless people from Korea to Japan, where they suffered the consequences of the atomic bomb blasts,” Kim said.
On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee selected Nihon Hidankyo, which has advocated against nuclear weapons for the past 70 years, to be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
“In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace,” the committee said in a press release.
Yet there was no mention of Korea in the statement’s allusion to “painful memories.” In their congratulatory messages, neither Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba nor US President Joe Biden mention Korea, the home to the second largest group of atomic bomb victims after the Japanese, whose nation was a belligerent party in the war.
According to statistics released in 2010 by a South Korean government committee charged with studying the damage caused by the compulsory mobilization of Koreans under the Japanese occupation and to assist overseas victims of that mobilization, an estimated 50,000 Koreans in Hiroshima and 20,000 in Nagasaki were exposed to radiation during the US’ atomic bombing of those cities. It’s estimated that around 40,000 Koreans died in the bombings, but the exact figure is unavailable because many records have been lost.
This isn’t the first time Koreans have been overlooked in compassionate overtures to victims of the atomic bombings.
In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, and during that visit he met with representatives of Nihon Hidankyo. But no atomic bomb survivors from the Korean Peninsula were present at that meeting. Obama laid a memorial wreath before a memorial to victims of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park but did not visit a similar memorial to Korean victims of the bomb located nearby.
Korean atomic bomb survivors are now able to receive medical and livelihood support, just like Japanese survivors, who are known locally as “hibakusha.” But that was the result of a decades-long struggle by Japanese civic groups and the survivors themselves.
The Japanese government provided hibakusha with medical fees and livelihood subsidies through a pair of laws enacted in 1957 and 1968. But the beneficiaries of those laws were limited to residents of Japan, which effectively excluded Korean atomic bomb survivors.
It wasn’t until 2008 that Japan passed an atomic bomb survivors assistance law that combined and replaced the previous two, enabling survivors outside of Japan to apply for assistance through Japanese consulates.
But even now, atomic bomb survivors in North Korea remain ineligible for Japanese government assistance because Japan and North Korea don’t have diplomatic relations.
“A 2008 survey found that around 1,900 survivors had gone to North Korea and that around 380 of them were still alive. Providing them compensation and medical care is not a matter of nationality, but of humanitarian values,” said Kim.
Kim Jin-ho, the Hiroshima Prefecture Association for Korean Atomic Bomb Survivors. (Kim So-youn/Hankyoreh)
The reason there were so many Koreans in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time of the atomic bombings was that Koreans had been conscripted or mobilized into working at the numerous arms factories in the two cities.
These Koreans can be regarded as having suffered double or even triple injuries: they were forced into slave labor by the Japanese colonial authorities, exposed to radiation in the US atomic bombings, and then largely left out of restitution efforts for bomb victims.
Korean atomic bomb survivors tried filing damages lawsuits in Japanese courts, but those lawsuits were rejected on the grounds of an agreement reached by South Korea and Japan in 1965 that purported to settle outstanding claims.
Korea’s survivors don’t have much time left.
In particular, very few of the “first generation” of atomic bomb survivors are still with us today. Korea’s National Human Rights Commission estimated in 2005 that there were 7,500 or so living atomic bomb survivors in the country. But according to figures released by the Red Cross last year, only 1,834 are still living.
The atomic bomb survivors want not only an apology and compensation from the perpetrator countries but also a future without nuclear weapons.
“The Japanese government needs to compensate the bereaved families of the victims, as late as that may be; the US, as a perpetrator company, should also take the necessary measures. Significantly, Japan, being both an aggressor in war and a victim of the atomic bomb, needs to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and guide us toward a world without nuclear weapons,” Kim said.
Advocacy groups for Korean atomic bomb survivors in the Hapcheon area, known as the “Korea’s Hiroshima” for how many of the Korean victims settled there — including the Hapcheon House of Peace, a group that supports the second generation of survivors — issued a congratulatory statement on Tuesday for Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese group selected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
“The children and grandchildren of atomic bomb survivors continue to lead lives of desperation and hardship, ignored by the government and society. We hope there will be closer communication and solidarity between civic groups and atomic bomb survivors not only inside Japan but around the world,” the groups said in their statement.
By Hong Seock-jae, Tokyo correspondent
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
Posted on : 2024-10-16 17:03 KST Modified on : 2024-10-16 17:03 KST
“Neither the US nor Japan have apologized to the Koreans who were victimized.”
These are the words of Kim Jin-ho, 78, chair of the Hiroshima Prefecture Association for Korean Atomic Bomb Survivors, who has mixed feelings about the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a confederation of survivors and victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
“The US, who dropped the atomic bombs, is not the only party at fault here. It was Japan that forcibly mobilized countless people from Korea to Japan, where they suffered the consequences of the atomic bomb blasts,” Kim said.
On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee selected Nihon Hidankyo, which has advocated against nuclear weapons for the past 70 years, to be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
“In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace,” the committee said in a press release.
Yet there was no mention of Korea in the statement’s allusion to “painful memories.” In their congratulatory messages, neither Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba nor US President Joe Biden mention Korea, the home to the second largest group of atomic bomb victims after the Japanese, whose nation was a belligerent party in the war.
According to statistics released in 2010 by a South Korean government committee charged with studying the damage caused by the compulsory mobilization of Koreans under the Japanese occupation and to assist overseas victims of that mobilization, an estimated 50,000 Koreans in Hiroshima and 20,000 in Nagasaki were exposed to radiation during the US’ atomic bombing of those cities. It’s estimated that around 40,000 Koreans died in the bombings, but the exact figure is unavailable because many records have been lost.
This isn’t the first time Koreans have been overlooked in compassionate overtures to victims of the atomic bombings.
In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, and during that visit he met with representatives of Nihon Hidankyo. But no atomic bomb survivors from the Korean Peninsula were present at that meeting. Obama laid a memorial wreath before a memorial to victims of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park but did not visit a similar memorial to Korean victims of the bomb located nearby.
Korean atomic bomb survivors are now able to receive medical and livelihood support, just like Japanese survivors, who are known locally as “hibakusha.” But that was the result of a decades-long struggle by Japanese civic groups and the survivors themselves.
The Japanese government provided hibakusha with medical fees and livelihood subsidies through a pair of laws enacted in 1957 and 1968. But the beneficiaries of those laws were limited to residents of Japan, which effectively excluded Korean atomic bomb survivors.
It wasn’t until 2008 that Japan passed an atomic bomb survivors assistance law that combined and replaced the previous two, enabling survivors outside of Japan to apply for assistance through Japanese consulates.
But even now, atomic bomb survivors in North Korea remain ineligible for Japanese government assistance because Japan and North Korea don’t have diplomatic relations.
“A 2008 survey found that around 1,900 survivors had gone to North Korea and that around 380 of them were still alive. Providing them compensation and medical care is not a matter of nationality, but of humanitarian values,” said Kim.
The reason there were so many Koreans in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time of the atomic bombings was that Koreans had been conscripted or mobilized into working at the numerous arms factories in the two cities.
These Koreans can be regarded as having suffered double or even triple injuries: they were forced into slave labor by the Japanese colonial authorities, exposed to radiation in the US atomic bombings, and then largely left out of restitution efforts for bomb victims.
Korean atomic bomb survivors tried filing damages lawsuits in Japanese courts, but those lawsuits were rejected on the grounds of an agreement reached by South Korea and Japan in 1965 that purported to settle outstanding claims.
Korea’s survivors don’t have much time left.
In particular, very few of the “first generation” of atomic bomb survivors are still with us today. Korea’s National Human Rights Commission estimated in 2005 that there were 7,500 or so living atomic bomb survivors in the country. But according to figures released by the Red Cross last year, only 1,834 are still living.
The atomic bomb survivors want not only an apology and compensation from the perpetrator countries but also a future without nuclear weapons.
“The Japanese government needs to compensate the bereaved families of the victims, as late as that may be; the US, as a perpetrator company, should also take the necessary measures. Significantly, Japan, being both an aggressor in war and a victim of the atomic bomb, needs to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and guide us toward a world without nuclear weapons,” Kim said.
Advocacy groups for Korean atomic bomb survivors in the Hapcheon area, known as the “Korea’s Hiroshima” for how many of the Korean victims settled there — including the Hapcheon House of Peace, a group that supports the second generation of survivors — issued a congratulatory statement on Tuesday for Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese group selected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
“The children and grandchildren of atomic bomb survivors continue to lead lives of desperation and hardship, ignored by the government and society. We hope there will be closer communication and solidarity between civic groups and atomic bomb survivors not only inside Japan but around the world,” the groups said in their statement.
By Hong Seock-jae, Tokyo correspondent
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]