Special Report LAST UPDATE October 6, 2008
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September 28, 2008 Korean Hibakusha – The forgotten ones
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Kwak Kwihoon spoke with power and pride of his struggle with the Japanese government to be recognised as a Hibakusha
“I saw a white flash and I thought, Wow! What a beautiful sight! When I looked down, there were flames everywhere. I just started running, I don’t know where--I just ran as fast as I could,” said Kwak Kwihoon, reflecting on the fateful day he became one of the 30,000 Korean nationals caught up in the devastating nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Former chairman of the Korean Hibakusha Union, Mr Kwak has spent the last ten years fighting to be recognised as a Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor), to receive equal treatment and compensation from the Japanese government as Japanese survivors of the attacks. Mr Kwak firmly believes, "No matter where we live, Hibakusha are Hibakusha." He and three other Korean Hibakusha joined the 63rd Global Voyage for a Nuclear Free World in order to raise awareness of this issue.
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Kim Yong-won (left), Lee Hae-soon (centre) and Cho Chang-gun (right) all spoke with passion of their experiences as Korean nationals during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Mr Kwak was a 20-year old conscripted soldier in Hiroshima when he experienced the bombing. Lee Hae Soon, who arrived in Japan with her parents seeking a better life, was also only 20 years old when the bomb was dropped. In an ironic twist of fate, Mrs Lee and her one month old daughter had only moved to Hiroshima to escape the air raids on their former town of residence. Their home was destroyed in the attack, but luckily neither she nor her daughter were injured. Kim Yong Won was still in junior high school, but had been mobilised with his classmates to transport arms from the depot to the air raid shelters, where he was protected from the worst of the effects. As Korean nationals in Japan, life had been hard, and many were treated as second class citizens. “Discrimination was normal everyday life,” recalled Mr Kim. “My junior high school teacher would not give me a letter of recommendation. He said high school was not the place for people like me.” It is therefore unsurprising that the conclusion of the war brought very different reactions from the Korean populace living in Japan to the country's majority. Those in enslaved labour, such as Mr Kwak, did little to hide their exuberance. “I was crying with happiness, while the Japanese cried because they had lost and thought they would starve,” he said.
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One slide from ‘The Day After’ exhibition documenting the lives of forgotten victims, the Korean Hibakusha (Photo provided by "Social Photography Research", Korea)
Over 23,000 Korean survivors returned to their homeland after the war, and since 1967 have been petitioning the Japanese government for recognition and treatment of their condition. However, up until recently, their calls fell on deaf ears. In 1974, the Japanese government lost its District Court case and was ordered to issue Hibakusha certificates to Korean applicants, but in July of the same year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare released Official Notice 402, which stated that the allowances for the Hibakusha were limited to those who resided in Japan. Thus, survivors based based in Korea were deprived of their long-awaited certificates. After 25 years of discrimination, Mr Kwak had enough and filed a lawsuit with the Osaka District Court against the Japanese government that called for his status to be recognized no matter where he resided. “I said this is crazy. When I am in Korea I am Korean. When I arrive in Japan in the afternoon, I am Hibakusha, but when I fly home I am Korean again. I change status three times in a day. It makes no sense to me.”
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The Green Foundation and Peace Boat regularly visit the Hapchon Rehabilitation Facility for Survivors of Atomic Bombing together to promote cooperation between Japan and Korea
After a long, expensive and arduous battle, in 2002 Mr Kwak finally won his landmark case when the Japanese government finally conceded defeat and forwent appealing his High Court victory. Finally, overseas Hibakusha had the recognition they long deserved. With the revoking of Notice 402, around 5,000 people living outside of Japan became eligible to receive their Hibakusha certificates. Despite this success, and after fighting over 30 cases, full justice has yet to be accomplished: compensation is still not equally weighted, funeral benefits are still denied, and no official apology has been offered (instead, the Japanese government hid its responsibilities under the guise of a humanitarian law). In addition, the plight of North Korean Hibakusha is continually ignored by both countries because of their triangle of strained international relations.
Mr Kwak believes it is now his responsibility to spread the message of the danger that discrimination and the threat nuclear weapons pose to the world, and sees the collaboration between Peace Boat and the Green Foundation, a Korean environmental NPO, as essential. The two organizations jointly organize annual short voyages in Asia (The Peace and Green Boat) to promote reconciliation and mutual understanding among people. “Young people have to collaborate and talk more about the experience of nuclear weapons to actively stop the social current towards nuclear weapons to achieve a world without nuclear forces,” emphasized Mr Kwak. Due to brave individuals like him, the situation for Korean Hibakusha has greatly improved—but the memory of a quarter century of struggle against discrimination that marginalized them, and awareness that much remains unsettled today is still vivid.