hankyoreh

Shim Jin-tae

The Korea Atomic Bomb Victim Association has decided to send a letter to Barack Obama before his visit to Hiroshima. In the letter, the association asks Obama to pay his respects before a memorial stone to Korean victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and to acknowledge the Korean victims of the bomb, launch an investigation, offer an apology and provide compensation.

“We have composed a draft of the letter to President Obama in the names of all the association’s members,” said Shim Jin-tae, 74, head of the association’s Hapcheon branch, on May 11. At the age of three, Shim was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell on the city.

“Korea is the country that has the second largest number of radiation victims after Japan. But no one has told the full story of the suffering of Korean survivors of the bombing, nor has any apology been made or compensation offered,” the draft of the association‘s letter reads. “While the South Korean government should be blamed for its apathy and diplomatic ineptitude, even more blame is due to Japan for not acknowledging its wars of aggression and its colonial rule and to the US for sheltering Japan and for avoiding its responsibility for being the first country to drop an atomic bomb.”

On Wednesday, the Hapcheon House of Peace, a group that gives support to atomic bomb survivors, adopted a statement calling on the US and Japanese governments to make an apology and provide compensation.

“We hope that your visit to Hiroshima is not exploited by the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which seeks to portray Japan as a victim and to shirk responsibility for Japan’s wars of aggression and colonial rule,” the association said in its letter. “Toward this end, we ask that you first visit the small memorial stone to Korean victims of the atomic bomb, which is located in a corner of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, and make an apology there.”

The South Korean government has reportedly also used diplomatic channels to express to the American government its opinion that when Obama lays a wreath before the memorial stone to those killed in the atomic blast in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park he should also lay a wreath before the monument to Koreans living in Japan who were killed in the same attack.

Seoul has also reportedly said that, if Obama cannot place flowers before the monument to the Korean victims, he should clearly acknowledge that a large number of the victims of the atomic attack on Hiroshima were Korean.

By Choi Sang-won, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]