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Fourteen Korean victims of the atomic bombings in Japan hold a press conference at the Hiroshima City Hall on May 18, where they speak about their experiences. (Kim So-youn/The Hankyoreh)

“The joint visit to the memorial to the Korean victims of the atomic bomb by the leaders of South Korea and Japan should be the beginning, not the end, of resolving the issue of Korean atomic bomb victims.”

Shim Jin-tae, 80, a first-generation Korean atomic bomb victim and chairperson of the Hapcheon chapter of the Korea Atomic Bombs Victim Association, expressed his thoughts with gravity in front of a packed room of South Korean and Japanese journalists in the press room of Hiroshima City Hall on Thursday afternoon.

Shim was in Hiroshima when the United States dropped the first atomic bomb in human history, Little Boy, on Aug. 6, 1945. Shim’s father, who had been forced to work on the Hiroshima archipelago, brought his wife along with him, and the couple soon gave birth to Shim. Born in 1943, Shim was just two years old when the bomb was dropped.

When Shim heard that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would visit the memorial to Korean victims of the atomic bomb at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park with President Yoon Suk-yeol on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima on May 19-21, he was “overjoyed and overwhelmed with emotion.”

While the visit has been criticized in South Korea as an attempt to deflect blame from Japan, the victims themselves have welcomed the visit with open arms. Fourteen Korean survivors of the atomic bomb voluntarily traveled to Hiroshima to express their sentiments. Twelve of the 14 are first-generation atomic bomb victims and are in their 80s or older.

Fourteen Korean victims of the atomic bombings in Japan hold a press conference at the Hiroshima City Hall on May 18, where they speak about their experiences. (Kim So-youn/The Hankyoreh)

The reason for their welcome was simple. This is the first time since the A-bomb was dropped 78 years ago that a South Korean president has visited Hiroshima, and the first time that the leaders of South Korea and Japan have planned to visit the memorial together.

It is also only the second time a sitting Japanese prime minister has visited, the first being Keizo Obuchi in 1999.

“The US dropped the atomic bomb and Japan started the war. It’s been 78 years, but neither the US nor Japan has commented on their actions, or even given an apology,” said Jeong Won-sul, 80, chairperson of the Korea Atomic Bombs Victim Association.

Seong Deuk-chan, 78, chairperson of the association’s South Gyeongsang branch, also spoke at the press conference. “My birthday is Aug. 6, 1945, around 9:30 am. I was born right after the bomb exploded,” he said.

The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at around 8:15 am, meaning Seong was born about an hour later. “I was born in an air defense shelter because our house was burning, my mother was about to give birth, and there was no one to help her,” he said. “Atomic bombs should not exist. No one should have to go through this pain ever again.”

The atomic bomb in Hiroshima killed more than 140,000 people, with an estimated 30,000 from the Korean Peninsula, though the Japanese government estimates the Korean casualties to be closer to 5,000 to 8,000.

Despite their many sacrifices, Korean atomic bomb victims have long been marginalized in both Japan and South Korea. In Japan, the emphasis was on Japan as the world’s only country to have an atomic bomb used on it, and in South Korea, the issue was treated as closed with the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. The perception that damage from atomic bombs can be inherited has led many victims to hide the fact that they had been exposed.

The victims have one more request: for the two leaders to meet with Korean victims in person. During his visit in May 2016, former US President Barack Obama met with two Japanese atomic bomb survivors, Sunao Tsuboi and Shigeaki Mori. He shook their hands and comforted them by embracing them.

Although the meeting was not formal, it was enough to let the survivors let go of some of their sorrow.

“I would like to see Korean atomic bomb victims participate in the visit of the leaders of South Korea and Japan. Please give us that opportunity,” said Jeong Jeong-woong, 83, a first-generation atomic bomb survivor and chairperson of the association’s Seoul chapter.

“Even before I came to Hiroshima, I asked the government many times to let us participate in the visit, but there was no response,” said Shim Jin-tae. “We hope to be able to tell the stories of Korean atomic bomb victims in person.”

By Kim So-youn, Tokyo correspondent

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