Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: In December, Korean A-bomb victim’s remains remain unreturned
Dec. 2, 2024
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
In December 1945, Kang Jeongia, 18 at the time, was still unable to find the remains of her husband, Son Samjo, 25, who was working at that time for the Hiroshima Gas Company (present-day Hiroshima Gas Co., Ltd.), located in the area of Otemachi (now in Hiroshima City’s Naka Ward). Mr. Son became one of the many people from Korea who died in the atomic bombing.
Ms. Kang was born in what is known today as Kyongsang-namdo in South Korea, which was at the time under Japan’s colonial rule. When she was three years old, her mother and she went to Tokyo, where her father had worked. In early 1945, she married Mr. Son, who was working as a design engineer.
According to Ms. Kang’s testimony in a collection titled Katari-tsugu Hiroshima-Nagasaki no Kokoro (in English, ‘Passing on the hearts of Hiroshima/Nagasaki), published in 2021, she said, “My husband was a kind man. When he was allocated at work two pieces of bread, he would eat one of them and bring the other piece to me.” On August 6, their short, seven-month newlywed life, which she and Mr. Son spent in his company’s dormitory in the area of Senda-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), came to an end.
Mr. Son is thought to have been working at the head office of his company near the hypocenter or mobilized for building-demolition work underway in the central part of the city. His younger brother searched for him but was unable to discover his whereabouts.
Ms. Kang experienced the atomic bombing when she was engaged in building-demolition work near the dormitory at the request of a neighborhood association and, as a result, suffered severe burns. After she stayed at the home of a relative of Mr. Son in Kure City in order to recuperate, she returned to Korea. Her new husband, with whom she starting living “something like a second marriage,” died in an accident. With that, she returned to Japan, moved around to different places, and earned a living through a variety of work including live-in jobs. Fearing discrimination against A-bomb survivors, she gave up the hope of both marrying again and having children.
In 2016, Ms. Kang visited Hiroshima for the first time in around 70 years from Kyoto, where she was living. As she spoke to young people about her experience in the atomic bombing at LFA, an NPO located in Kyoto City whose day service she was utilizing, her longing for her deceased husband grew stronger. She visited the memorial monument for Hiroshima Gas victims and the Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb.
Lee Yeongok, 43, a care manager who accompanied Ms. Kang at that time, said, “As soon as she arrived at the memorial monuments, she burst into tears with her hands together in prayer and said, ‘I’m sorry to be so late.’ It appeared as if the couple was having a conversation for the first time in 71 years.” Ms. Kang always kept close at hand a newlywed photograph of her and her husband. She died in 2022 at the age of 95.
(Originally published on December 2, 2024)
In December 1945, Kang Jeongia, 18 at the time, was still unable to find the remains of her husband, Son Samjo, 25, who was working at that time for the Hiroshima Gas Company (present-day Hiroshima Gas Co., Ltd.), located in the area of Otemachi (now in Hiroshima City’s Naka Ward). Mr. Son became one of the many people from Korea who died in the atomic bombing.
Ms. Kang was born in what is known today as Kyongsang-namdo in South Korea, which was at the time under Japan’s colonial rule. When she was three years old, her mother and she went to Tokyo, where her father had worked. In early 1945, she married Mr. Son, who was working as a design engineer.
According to Ms. Kang’s testimony in a collection titled Katari-tsugu Hiroshima-Nagasaki no Kokoro (in English, ‘Passing on the hearts of Hiroshima/Nagasaki), published in 2021, she said, “My husband was a kind man. When he was allocated at work two pieces of bread, he would eat one of them and bring the other piece to me.” On August 6, their short, seven-month newlywed life, which she and Mr. Son spent in his company’s dormitory in the area of Senda-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), came to an end.
Mr. Son is thought to have been working at the head office of his company near the hypocenter or mobilized for building-demolition work underway in the central part of the city. His younger brother searched for him but was unable to discover his whereabouts.
Ms. Kang experienced the atomic bombing when she was engaged in building-demolition work near the dormitory at the request of a neighborhood association and, as a result, suffered severe burns. After she stayed at the home of a relative of Mr. Son in Kure City in order to recuperate, she returned to Korea. Her new husband, with whom she starting living “something like a second marriage,” died in an accident. With that, she returned to Japan, moved around to different places, and earned a living through a variety of work including live-in jobs. Fearing discrimination against A-bomb survivors, she gave up the hope of both marrying again and having children.
In 2016, Ms. Kang visited Hiroshima for the first time in around 70 years from Kyoto, where she was living. As she spoke to young people about her experience in the atomic bombing at LFA, an NPO located in Kyoto City whose day service she was utilizing, her longing for her deceased husband grew stronger. She visited the memorial monument for Hiroshima Gas victims and the Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb.
Lee Yeongok, 43, a care manager who accompanied Ms. Kang at that time, said, “As soon as she arrived at the memorial monuments, she burst into tears with her hands together in prayer and said, ‘I’m sorry to be so late.’ It appeared as if the couple was having a conversation for the first time in 71 years.” Ms. Kang always kept close at hand a newlywed photograph of her and her husband. She died in 2022 at the age of 95.
(Originally published on December 2, 2024)
