[Hiroshima Summit May 19 to 21] South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol considers meeting with Korean A-bomb survivors, timed with his participation in expanded meeting of G7 summit
May 12, 2023
by Kana Kobayashi, Staff Writer
On May 11, it was learned South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was considering meeting with Korean A-bomb survivors living in Japan when he visits Hiroshima City to participate in an expanded meeting of the Hiroshima Summit of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations. According to the Hiroshima City government, this is the first time for a sitting South Korean president to visit Hiroshima. If the meeting takes place, it would be an opportunity to communicate throughout Japan and around the world the history of hardships experienced by Korean A-bomb survivors living in Japan.
On the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Mr. Yoon will participate in the expanded meeting of the G7 Hiroshima Summit from May 20. On May 7, at a joint press conference after a Japan-South Korea summit meeting held in Seoul, South Korea, Mr. Kishida said they would visit the Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city’s Naka Ward and “offer prayers together.” According to parties involved, the South Korean government appears to be considering the meeting in response to strong expectations of Koreans who live in Japan and hope to meet with the president on this historic occasion, when a South Korean president visits the A-bombed city of Hiroshima.
Korean A-bomb survivors came to live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the Korean Peninsula, then a colony of Japan, conscripted as laborers or soldiers or due to poverty, and experienced the atomic bombings. But the real damage suffered by those coming from the peninsula has remained unclear. The estimated Korean death toll from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima varies, including “5,000 to 8,000” and “30,000.” Korean A-bomb survivors who returned to the peninsula were long positioned outside the framework of relief measures provided by the Japanese government, while Korean A-bomb survivors remaining in Japan suffered hardships, facing discrimination in the Japanese society, for instance.
(Originally published on May 12, 2023)
On May 11, it was learned South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was considering meeting with Korean A-bomb survivors living in Japan when he visits Hiroshima City to participate in an expanded meeting of the Hiroshima Summit of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations. According to the Hiroshima City government, this is the first time for a sitting South Korean president to visit Hiroshima. If the meeting takes place, it would be an opportunity to communicate throughout Japan and around the world the history of hardships experienced by Korean A-bomb survivors living in Japan.
On the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Mr. Yoon will participate in the expanded meeting of the G7 Hiroshima Summit from May 20. On May 7, at a joint press conference after a Japan-South Korea summit meeting held in Seoul, South Korea, Mr. Kishida said they would visit the Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city’s Naka Ward and “offer prayers together.” According to parties involved, the South Korean government appears to be considering the meeting in response to strong expectations of Koreans who live in Japan and hope to meet with the president on this historic occasion, when a South Korean president visits the A-bombed city of Hiroshima.
Korean A-bomb survivors came to live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the Korean Peninsula, then a colony of Japan, conscripted as laborers or soldiers or due to poverty, and experienced the atomic bombings. But the real damage suffered by those coming from the peninsula has remained unclear. The estimated Korean death toll from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima varies, including “5,000 to 8,000” and “30,000.” Korean A-bomb survivors who returned to the peninsula were long positioned outside the framework of relief measures provided by the Japanese government, while Korean A-bomb survivors remaining in Japan suffered hardships, facing discrimination in the Japanese society, for instance.
(Originally published on May 12, 2023)
