[Speech] Kee-youl Lee: The first generation of Korean A-bomb victim

The first generation of Korean A-bomb victim: 

 Kee-youl Lee

Remarks at the TPNW 2MSP side event 

"A Call for Justice - Recent Status of Korean Atomic Bomb Victims and the People's Tribunal"



Let’s join the International People’s Tribunal

to hold the U.S. accountable for dropping Atomic bombs!


My name is Lee Kee-youl, the first generation of the Korean atomic bomb victim.

I was born in Hiroshima on March 25, 1945. My parents’ hometown is Hapcheon in Korea. Due to harsh Japanese exploitation, my parents were too poor to feed themselves and moved to Hiroshima, where they were exposed to radiation. 


I was a five-month-old baby when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The atomic bomb destroyed our house. My sister who was 17 years old at the time, left work in the morning and returned with radiation exposure.


After the liberation from Japanese imperialism, my parents and all my siblings returned to Korea, but all of them had suffered throughout their lives from the aftermath of radiation exposure.


Even after seventy-eight years have passed, my body still remembers the devastation day of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I frequently wake up from the nightmares. I experience breathing difficulties, and the internal nose pain does not allow me to fall asleep without wearing a mask.


The lives and human rights of the Korean bomb victims like me have been completely neglected and damaged. Neither Japan (that exploited us through imperialism), nor the Korean government has acknowledged their responsibilities for the wrong doings. There have been no apologies and compensations for the victims.


I would like to talk about the Korean victims who were immediately killed by the atomic bomb dropping in 1945. I feel that tens of thousands of spirits of the Korean bomb victims have been wandering around Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  


As a survivor, I desperately wish that we could bring the spirits of the victims back to liberated Korea as we build an anti-nuclear peace park in Hapcheon.


I am now seventy-nine years old, the youngest among the 1800 survivors of the first generation.


How much longer can I live? The only thing I hope is that the U.S. acknowledges its responsibilities and apologizes for the atomic bomb dropping. I just want to hear, “The atomic bomb dropping was wrong. We are very sorry for what we did to the victims.”


If possible, I would like to pursue a lawsuit against the U.S., but I am also aware of the difficulties in such a lawsuit.


Therefore, I will attend the international people’s tribune on the 1945 atomic bombings as a plaintiff. The people’s tribunal will be hosted in New York in 2026 and supported by the SPARK, a Korean peace organization.


Those who attend the TPNW 2MSP in hopes to ban and abolish the nuclear weapons!


If the U.S. admits the responsibilities for the atomic bomb dropping in 1945 and gives apologies to the victims, no country would dare to contemplate using nuclear weapons in the future.


I would like to contribute to stopping the growing risk of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and making the nuclear free world. I, as an atomic bomb survivor, must prevent Koreans from becoming victims of nuclear weapons once again. 


By doing this, I want to provide comfort the spirits of those who suffered from the side effects of the radiation exposure and the Korean government’s long negligence.  


I believe this is my lifelong calling, carrying the fate of a survivor and enduring pain. Please listen to the voices of Korean atomic bomb victims, and I ask for your support and participation in the People’s Tribunal on the 1945 atomic bombings.


I, as atomic bomb survivor, will do my best to inherit a nuclear free world and war free world by working with the global peace citizens who are strongly against the nuclear weapons and nuclear wars.

Anti-War, Anti-Nuclear, Peace! Dreaming of a beautiful world!

Thank you.