Jung-Soon Han: Testimony at the Side Event of the 3rd MSP of the TPNW
From March 3rd to 7th, the 3rd Meeting of States Parties (MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) took place. During the conference, alongside the official meetings with government delegations from state parties, numerous side events were held by anti-nuclear peace organizations from various countries.
On March 4th (Tuesday), the International Organizing Committee hosted a side event on the theme of a People's Tribunal at the Church Center for the United Nations. The event, which was attended by around 60 participants, featured testimonies from victims participating as plaintiffs in the tribunal. Discussions also focused on promoting the 2026 People's Tribunal and strategies for organizing participant involvement.
Below is the testimony of one of the plaintiffs, Jung-Soon Han.
I am Han Jeong-soon, president of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association's Second-Generation Patient Group. My parents, unable to endure the harsh exploitation during the Japanese colonial period, moved to Japan, where 14 of us lived together in Hiroshima. Due to the atomic bombing, my grandmother and uncles suffered severe burns, and my mother was exposed to radiation while pregnant.
A year after the bombing, my parents returned to our hometown in Hapcheon, Korea. However, my older brother, who had been affected by the radiation before birth, passed away a year later from the effects. My siblings and I have all suffered from diseases caused by the long-lasting effects of the atomic bombing. We've faced various health issues, including strokes, heart problems, chest pain, and the youngest even lost all their teeth at a young age.
As the fifth of six children, I started feeling pain in my legs when I was young. By my twenties, I couldn’t walk or stand properly. After I got married, things got worse when my first child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. After giving birth, the pain in my legs got worse, and doctors found that I had avascular necrosis of the femoral head, which meant my hip joint was slowly decaying.
I couldn’t stand properly, so I had to drag myself across the floor using my hands. The floor was covered in blood from my scraped hands.
Under serious financial burden, I managed to have a hip replacement surgery, but it didn’t last long. Later, I had to have six more surgeries, and further surgeries for uterine fibroids and gallbladder removal. In total, I have had 12 surgeries so far.
The damage from nuclear weapons cruelly passes down through generations. Second-generation victims of the atomic bomb in Korea, like myself, live their lives suffering from the inherited effects of radiation exposure, but we are not even recognized as a-bomb victims.
As president of the Association of the Unwell Second Generation Atomic Bomb Victims, I strive not only to bear my own pain but also to care for other second-generation victims, embracing their suffering as my own. Whenever I see other 2nd gen victims who die from their illnesses, my heart aches deeply.
However, both Japan, which started the war, and the US, which dropped the a-bomb, have not even offered a single word of recognition or apology for the lasting effects of the bombing, even after 80 years. I want to speak out and call for justice.
I want to hold the US accountable for its responsibility in dropping the a-bomb, demand an apology, and seek compensation so that we will have a nuclear-free world with no more nuclear victims like me.
This is why I decided to take part as a plaintiff in the International People’s Tribunal on the Atomic Bomb. I believe this tribunal can give a voice to the long-silenced Korean a-bomb victims, allowing us to finally be heard in the public.
Living as a nuclear victim for a lifetime is an unimaginable cruelty. Such horrific cruelty must never be repeated by mankind ever again.
Jung-Soon Han: Testimony at the Side Event of the 3rd MSP of the TPNW
From March 3rd to 7th, the 3rd Meeting of States Parties (MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) took place. During the conference, alongside the official meetings with government delegations from state parties, numerous side events were held by anti-nuclear peace organizations from various countries.
On March 4th (Tuesday), the International Organizing Committee hosted a side event on the theme of a People's Tribunal at the Church Center for the United Nations. The event, which was attended by around 60 participants, featured testimonies from victims participating as plaintiffs in the tribunal. Discussions also focused on promoting the 2026 People's Tribunal and strategies for organizing participant involvement.
Below is the testimony of one of the plaintiffs, Jung-Soon Han.
I am Han Jeong-soon, president of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association's Second-Generation Patient Group. My parents, unable to endure the harsh exploitation during the Japanese colonial period, moved to Japan, where 14 of us lived together in Hiroshima. Due to the atomic bombing, my grandmother and uncles suffered severe burns, and my mother was exposed to radiation while pregnant.
A year after the bombing, my parents returned to our hometown in Hapcheon, Korea. However, my older brother, who had been affected by the radiation before birth, passed away a year later from the effects. My siblings and I have all suffered from diseases caused by the long-lasting effects of the atomic bombing. We've faced various health issues, including strokes, heart problems, chest pain, and the youngest even lost all their teeth at a young age.
As the fifth of six children, I started feeling pain in my legs when I was young. By my twenties, I couldn’t walk or stand properly. After I got married, things got worse when my first child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. After giving birth, the pain in my legs got worse, and doctors found that I had avascular necrosis of the femoral head, which meant my hip joint was slowly decaying.
I couldn’t stand properly, so I had to drag myself across the floor using my hands. The floor was covered in blood from my scraped hands.
Under serious financial burden, I managed to have a hip replacement surgery, but it didn’t last long. Later, I had to have six more surgeries, and further surgeries for uterine fibroids and gallbladder removal. In total, I have had 12 surgeries so far.
The damage from nuclear weapons cruelly passes down through generations. Second-generation victims of the atomic bomb in Korea, like myself, live their lives suffering from the inherited effects of radiation exposure, but we are not even recognized as a-bomb victims.
As president of the Association of the Unwell Second Generation Atomic Bomb Victims, I strive not only to bear my own pain but also to care for other second-generation victims, embracing their suffering as my own. Whenever I see other 2nd gen victims who die from their illnesses, my heart aches deeply.
However, both Japan, which started the war, and the US, which dropped the a-bomb, have not even offered a single word of recognition or apology for the lasting effects of the bombing, even after 80 years. I want to speak out and call for justice.
I want to hold the US accountable for its responsibility in dropping the a-bomb, demand an apology, and seek compensation so that we will have a nuclear-free world with no more nuclear victims like me.
This is why I decided to take part as a plaintiff in the International People’s Tribunal on the Atomic Bomb. I believe this tribunal can give a voice to the long-silenced Korean a-bomb victims, allowing us to finally be heard in the public.
Living as a nuclear victim for a lifetime is an unimaginable cruelty. Such horrific cruelty must never be repeated by mankind ever again.