The BBC visits the Korean survivors of the Hiroshima bomb

[ad_1] Hyojung Kim BBC Korean in Hapcheon

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f799/live/2dc96710-7133-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="BBC/Hyojung Kim An old woman white short white hair and wire frame glasses sits in a chair and looks into the camera" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> BBC/Hyojung Kim Lee Jung-soon, 88, is considered one of many nuclear bomb survivors who now lives in Hapcheon, South Korea

At 08:15 on August 6, 1945, as a nuclear bomb was falling like a stone via the skies over Hiroshima, Lee Jung-soon was on her solution to elementary faculty.

The now-88-year-old waves her arms as if making an attempt to push the reminiscence away.

"My father was about to depart for work, however he abruptly got here operating again and instructed us to evacuate instantly," she remembers. "They are saying the streets have been full of the useless – however I used to be so shocked all I keep in mind is crying. I simply cried and cried."

Victims' our bodies "melted away so solely their eyes have been seen", Ms Lee says, as a blast equal to fifteen,000 tons of TNT enveloped a metropolis of 420,000 folks. What remained within the aftermath have been corpses too mangled to be recognized.

"The atomic bomb… it is such a terrifying weapon."

It has been 80 years since the USA detonated 'Little Boy', humanity's first-ever atomic bomb, over the centre of Hiroshima, immediately killing some 70,000 folks. Tens of hundreds extra would die within the coming months from radiation illness, burns and dehydration.

The devastation wrought by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which introduced a decisive finish to each World Warfare Two and Japanese imperial rule throughout massive swaths of Asia – has been well-documented over the previous eight many years.

Much less well-known is the truth that about 20% of the rapid victims have been Koreans.

Korea had been a Japanese colony for 35 years when the bomb was dropped. An estimated 140,000 Koreans have been dwelling in Hiroshima on the time - many having moved there as a result of compelled labour mobilisation, or to outlive underneath colonial exploitation.

Those that survived the atom bomb, together with their descendants, proceed to stay within the lengthy shadow of that day – wrestling with disfigurement, ache, and a decades-long battle for justice that continues to be unresolved.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8a14/live/e31ea160-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images A person walks up a street towards a pair of blocky white buildings in front of a brown hillside, with trees growing on the side of the road" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Photos Hapcheon has been dubbed "Korea's Hiroshima" because of the variety of nuclear bomb survivors who lived there after the conflict

"No-one takes accountability," says Shim Jin-tae, an 83-year-old survivor. "Not the nation that dropped the bomb. Not the nation that failed to guard us. America by no means apologised. Japan pretends to not know. Korea is not any higher. They simply move the blame - and we're left alone."

Mr Shim now lives in Hapcheon, South Korea: a small county which, having change into the house of dozens of survivors like he and Ms Lee, has been dubbed "Korea's Hiroshima".

For Ms Lee, the shock of that day has not light - it etched itself into her physique as sickness. She now lives with pores and skin most cancers, Parkinson's illness, and angina, a situation stemming from poor blood move to the guts, which generally manifests as chest ache.

However what weighs extra closely is that the ache did not cease along with her. Her son Ho-chang, who helps her, was identified with kidney failure and is present process dialysis whereas awaiting a transplant.

"I imagine it is as a result of radiation publicity, however who can show it?" Ho-chang Lee says. "It is arduous to confirm scientifically - you'd want genetic testing, which is exhausting and costly."

The Ministry of Well being and Welfare (MOHW) instructed the BBC that it had gathered genetic information between 2020 and 2024 and would proceed additional research till 2029. It might "take into account increasing the definition of victims" to second- and- third-generation survivors solely "if the outcomes are statistically vital", it stated.

The Korean toll

Of the 140,000 Koreans in Hiroshima on the time of the bombing, many have been from Hapcheon.

Surrounded by mountains with little farmland, it was a tough place to stay. Crops have been seized by the Japanese occupiers, droughts ravaged the land, and hundreds of individuals left the agricultural nation for Japan in the course of the conflict. Some have been forcibly conscripted; others have been lured by the promise that "you possibly can eat three meals a day and ship your children to high school."

However in Japan, Koreans have been second-class residents – usually given the toughest, dirtiest and most harmful jobs. Mr Shim says his father labored in a munitions manufacturing unit as a compelled labourer, whereas his mom hammered nails into picket ammunition crates.

Within the aftermath of the bomb, this distribution of labour translated into harmful and sometimes deadly work for Koreans in Hiroshima.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/28ad/live/4a13b4b0-7116-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="BBC/Hyojung Kim An old man in a chequered blazer sits in front of a black-and-white photograph showing destroyed streets and debris " class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> BBC/Hyojung Kim For Shim Jin-tae, it is not nearly being compensated – it is about being acknowledged

"Korean staff needed to clear up the useless," Mr Shim, who's the director of the Hapcheon department of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Affiliation, tells BBC Korean. "At first they used stretchers, however there have been too many our bodies. Finally, they used dustpans to assemble corpses and burned them in schoolyards.

"It was largely Koreans who did this. Many of the post-war clean-up and munitions work was achieved by us."

In response to a research by the Gyeonggi Welfare Basis, some survivors have been compelled to clear rubble and recuperate our bodies. Whereas Japanese evacuees fled to relations, Koreans with out native ties remained within the metropolis, uncovered to the radioactive fallout – and with restricted entry to medical care.

A mix of those circumstances - poor therapy, hazardous work and structural discrimination - all contributed to a disproportionately excessive loss of life toll amongst Koreans.

In response to the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Affiliation, the Korean fatality fee was 57.1%, in comparison with the general fee of about 33.7%.

About 70,000 Koreans have been uncovered to the bomb. By 12 months's finish, some 40,000 had died.

Outcasts at residence

After the bombings, which led to Japan's give up and Korea's subsequent liberation, about 23,000 Korean survivors returned residence. However they weren't welcomed. Branded as disfigured or cursed, they confronted prejudice even of their homeland.

"Hapcheon already had a leper colony," Mr Shim explains. "And due to that picture, folks thought the bomb survivors had pores and skin ailments too."

Such stigma made survivors keep silent about their plight, he provides, suggesting that "survival got here earlier than pleasure".

Ms Lee says she noticed this "along with her personal eyes".

"Individuals who have been badly burned or extraordinarily poor have been handled terribly," she remembers. "In our village, some folks had their backs and faces so badly scarred that solely their eyes have been seen. They have been rejected from marriage and shunned."

With stigma got here poverty, and hardship. Then got here sicknesses with no clear trigger: pores and skin ailments, coronary heart circumstances, kidney failure, most cancers. The signs have been all over the place - however no-one might clarify them.

Over time, the main focus shifted to the second and third generations.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/acfa/live/2718b2a0-7114-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="BBC/Hyojung Kim A middle-aged woman with short black hair and glasses looks into the camera" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> BBC/Hyojung Kim Second-generation survivor Han Jeong-sun cannot stroll with out dragging herself, and has confronted stigma from her circle of relatives

Han Jeong-sun, a second-generation survivor, suffers from avascular necrosis in her hips, and may't stroll with out dragging herself. Her first son was born with cerebral palsy.

"My son has by no means walked a single step in his life," she says. "And my in-laws handled me horribly. They stated, 'You gave start to a crippled youngster and also you're crippled too—are you right here to damage our household?'

"That point was absolute hell."

For many years, not even the Korean authorities took lively curiosity in its personal victims, as a conflict with the North and financial struggles have been handled as increased priorities.

It wasn't till 2019 - greater than 70 years after the bombing - that MOHW launched its first fact-finding report. That survey was largely primarily based on questionnaires.

In response to BBC inquiries, the ministry defined that previous to 2019, "There was no authorized foundation for funding or official investigations".

However two separate research had discovered that second-generation victims have been extra susceptible to sickness. One, from 2005, confirmed that second-generation victims have been much more seemingly than the final inhabitants to undergo despair, coronary heart illness and anaemia, whereas one other from 2013 discovered their incapacity registration fee was almost double the nationwide common.

In opposition to this backdrop, Ms Han is incredulous that authorities hold asking for proof to recognise her and her son as victims of Hiroshima.

"My sickness is the proof. My son's incapacity is the proof. This ache passes down generations, and it is seen," she says. "However they will not recognise it. So what are we speculated to do - simply die with out ever being acknowledged?"

Peace with out apology

It was solely final month, on July 12, that Hiroshima officers visited Hapcheon for the primary time to put flowers at a memorial. Whereas former PM Yukio Hatoyama and different non-public figures had come earlier than, this was the primary official go to by present Japanese officers.

"Now in 2025 Japan talks about peace. However peace with out apology is meaningless," says Junko Ichiba, a long-time Japanese peace activist who has spent most of her life advocating for Korean Hiroshima victims.

She factors out, the visiting officers gave no point out or apology for the way Japan handled Korean folks earlier than and through World Warfare Two.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/66b9/live/3c3bf6a0-7115-11f0-a0b6-378ae6c474ca.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="BBC/Hyojung Kim A man stands at a temple in front of rows of small rectangular wooden planks, standing vertically, with Chinese characters on them" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> BBC/Hyojung Kim A memorial corridor in Hapcheon holds 1,160 picket tablets - every one bearing the identify of a Korean killed by the nuclear bomb

Though a number of former Japanese leaders have provided their apologies and regret, many South Koreans regard these sentiments as insincere or inadequate with out formal acknowledgement.

Ms Ichiba notes that Japanese textbooks nonetheless omit the historical past of Korea's colonial previous - in addition to its atomic bomb victims – saying that "this invisibility solely deepens the injustice".

This provides to what many view as a broader lack of accountability for Japan's colonial legacy.

Heo Jeong-gu, director of the Purple Cross's help division, stated, "These points... should be addressed whereas survivors are nonetheless alive. For the second and third generations, we should collect proof and testimonies earlier than it is too late."

For survivors like Mr Shim it is not nearly being compensated – it is about being acknowledged.

"Reminiscence issues greater than compensation," he says. "Our our bodies keep in mind what we went via… If we neglect, it's going to occur once more. And sometime, there will be nobody left to inform the story."