Korean victims of nuke bombing neglected by Japan

The memorial stone for Korean victims of nuclear bombings at Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan is sitting only 205 steps from the memorial stone for Japanese victims of nuclear bombings erected by Japan. While visiting Hiroshima last week ahead of the 70th anniversary of nuclear bombings in Japan, this writer intentionally measured the distance. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. military’s B29 bombers dropped nuclear bombs from the skies over Hiroshima, which left some 200,000 killed. Some 20,000 of them were Koreans. While former Japanese prime ministers attended memorial ceremonies in front of the Japanese memorial stone, they disregarded the memorial stone for Koreans that was sitting right by the former.

Sitting by the memorial stones for victims of the nuclear bombings are Peace Memorial Hall, which houses various materials on damages from the bombings. Whoever watches remains of victims and debris of buildings, he or she becomes speechless due to devastating power of nuclear bombings and atrocities of the war. However, one can hardly find any signs of responsibility and reflection by Japan, which started the war. Japan is only portrayed as the victim that should be consoled from the beginning to the end at the hall. There is no mention of Koreans who were victimized after being taken to Japan as forced laborers. There is no national border in destruction of humanity caused by war, but Japan’s memories of nuclear bombings are a far cry from humanity’s common perception.

The memorial stone for Korean victims was originally erected at outside the park, but relocated to the current location in 1999, about 29 years after its erection. In 2011, students of Korea University and Waseda University had planted a Korean tree by the memorial stone to pay tribute to victims, but the tree was vandalized. The tree disappeared at night on April 16 last year. The act is believed to have been committed by ultra-rightists, but the criminal has not been caught.

Hiroshima is still a city with "dual faces." Korean Consul General in Hiroshima requested the director of the Peace Memorial Hall to construct a Korean pavilion, but the director only replied, “We are agonizing over how to treat foreign victims.” Japan has inscription on its memorial stone, “We will not repeat the mistake (causing the war).” If Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits the Korean memorial stone on the 70th anniversary of its loss at the war, it will be recognition and reflection of its responsibility for the war, which would be more powerful than any words. But it is doubtable whether he could take such move.