Peace festival in “Hiroshima of Korea” calls for a world free from nuclear threats
Mar. 30, 2012
by Michiko Tanaka, Staff Writer, dispatched from Hapcheon County, Korea
“The Hapcheon Anti-Nuclear & Peace Festival 2012” opened on March 23 in Hapcheon County, South Korea. Hapcheon County, located in South Gyeongsang Province, has been dubbed the “Hiroshima of Korea” due to the many A-bomb survivors who returned to this area from Hiroshima after the end of World War II. Among the participants at the two-day conference are A-bomb survivors and medical doctors who have experience treating survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. The participants plan to renew their determination to realize a world that is free from nuclear threats and dangers.
This is the first conference organized by the Hapcheon House for Peace, an organization which supports Korean A-bomb survivors, since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant. Some 500 people have gathered for the event at the Hapcheon County Culture and Art Hall. Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb survivors, residents of Fukushima Prefecture, and survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the former Soviet Union were also invited to take part.
At the festival’s opening ceremony, Sung Suh, the co-chair of the steering committee for the festival and a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, made the opening address. The expert in comparative human rights law said, “Now that we are aware of the horror of nuclear substances as a result of the accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, let us appeal for the realization of a world that is free from nuclear threats.” A chorus consisting of local children, A-bomb survivors, and second-generation survivors then sang a peace song.
Tetsuya Takahashi, a professor at the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo, delivered the keynote speech. Mr. Takahashi, who is originally from Fukushima Prefecture, criticized the Japanese government’s nuclear energy policy, saying that the policy “can be implemented only when the public has been victimized and led to believe that nuclear power is safe.”
Before the conference closes on March 24, speeches will be made by victims of radiation exposure, among other activities that day, and an anti-nuclear and peace declaration will be adopted. Miyako Yano, 80, a resident of Nishi Ward, Hiroshima, and the executive director of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations, chaired by Kazushi Kaneko, said, “I intend to listen closely to what happened to the Korean A-bomb survivors after the war. They are also A-bomb survivors yet were ignored when it came to relief measures.”
(Originally published on March 24, 2012)
“The Hapcheon Anti-Nuclear & Peace Festival 2012” opened on March 23 in Hapcheon County, South Korea. Hapcheon County, located in South Gyeongsang Province, has been dubbed the “Hiroshima of Korea” due to the many A-bomb survivors who returned to this area from Hiroshima after the end of World War II. Among the participants at the two-day conference are A-bomb survivors and medical doctors who have experience treating survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. The participants plan to renew their determination to realize a world that is free from nuclear threats and dangers.
This is the first conference organized by the Hapcheon House for Peace, an organization which supports Korean A-bomb survivors, since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant. Some 500 people have gathered for the event at the Hapcheon County Culture and Art Hall. Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb survivors, residents of Fukushima Prefecture, and survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the former Soviet Union were also invited to take part.
At the festival’s opening ceremony, Sung Suh, the co-chair of the steering committee for the festival and a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, made the opening address. The expert in comparative human rights law said, “Now that we are aware of the horror of nuclear substances as a result of the accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, let us appeal for the realization of a world that is free from nuclear threats.” A chorus consisting of local children, A-bomb survivors, and second-generation survivors then sang a peace song.
Tetsuya Takahashi, a professor at the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo, delivered the keynote speech. Mr. Takahashi, who is originally from Fukushima Prefecture, criticized the Japanese government’s nuclear energy policy, saying that the policy “can be implemented only when the public has been victimized and led to believe that nuclear power is safe.”
Before the conference closes on March 24, speeches will be made by victims of radiation exposure, among other activities that day, and an anti-nuclear and peace declaration will be adopted. Miyako Yano, 80, a resident of Nishi Ward, Hiroshima, and the executive director of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations, chaired by Kazushi Kaneko, said, “I intend to listen closely to what happened to the Korean A-bomb survivors after the war. They are also A-bomb survivors yet were ignored when it came to relief measures.”
(Originally published on March 24, 2012)
