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People pay respects to atom bomb victims at a memorial in Hapcheon County, South Gyeongsang Province. (Kim Bong-gyu, staff photographer)

The South Korean government is organizing the first research project to determine whether the aftereffects of exposure to atomic bomb radiation are heritable. The descendants of atomic bomb survivors frequently suffer from rare diseases that are difficult to treat. If it turns out that they have inherited their conditions from their parents, it could create a diplomatic controversy.

This past May, South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare assigned the project to a team of researchers led by Park Bo-young, a professor of preventive medicine, and Nam Jin-wu, a professor of life science, both at Hanyang University. Park will announce her plan to convene a cohort of the first, second, and third generations of radiation exposure and conduct a genomic analysis on that cohort during the 2020 Hapcheon Denuclearization and Peace Conference, which will be held in Hapcheon County, South Gyeongsang Province, on Aug. 5. The study’s results are slated for release in late 2024.

Various surveys have shown that there’s a high prevalence of rare diseases among atomic bomb survivors and their descendants. Those who were originally exposed to radiation when atomic bombs went off above Hiroshima and Nagasaki believe that their children have inherited their conditions, but the exact cause of the correlation has not been determined. The result is that atomic bomb survivors receive assistance from the governments of South Korea and Japan, but their descendants do not, even if they suffer from rare diseases, because governments don’t recognize them as atomic bomb survivors.

If this study finds that the aftereffects of radiation exposure are in fact passed down from parents to children, governments would be forced to recognize many more atomic bomb survivors. Another consequence is that these hereditary conditions might be incurable and thus affect all future generations. Groups advocating for atomic bomb survivors think that’s why the US and Japan don’t recognize the inheritance of exposure aftereffects.

“The purpose of this study is to determine radiation’s causal effect on the human body and the occurrence of disease and to determine its genetic effect on children through a genomic analysis. This study will provide the basis for establishing public health and medical treatment measures and policies covering the lives and generations of atomic bomb survivors and their children,” Park Bo-young explained.

The research will consist of a survey of 2,700 members of the first, second, and third generations of atomic bomb survivors, the composition of family trees including the deceased, and health exams. Among those surveyed, 400 will be subjected to genomic analysis. The survey will cover 300 people in 2020, its first year, with 60 members of 20 families receiving genomic testing.

“I got angry when they got in touch to tell me that this study was being launched. More than 80 years have passed since Korea was liberated [at the end of World War II]. Most of the first generation of atomic bomb survivors has died, as have most members of the second generation who inherited exposure aftereffects. I’d like to give the government a piece of my mind about waiting so long,” said Han Jeong-sun, secretary-general of the Hapcheon Peace House, a shelter for second-generation atomic bomb survivors.

The US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. As many as 70,000 Koreans were exposed to radiation in those attacks, leaving 40,000 dead. The 30,000 survivors faced serious lingering effects from the exposure. As of the end of 2019, 2,100 of them are still alive, with an average age of 81.

The inheritance of radiation exposure aftereffects came to public attention on Mar. 22, 2002, when Kim Hyeong-ryul revealed that he was a “second-generation atomic bomb survivor” who was suffering from an incurable condition known as congenital immunoglobulin deficiency disease. Kim died on May 29, 2005, at the age of 35.

By Choi Sang-won, South Gyeongsang correspondent

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