S. Korea’s new envoy to Hiroshima is son of atomic bomb victim
Jan. 24, 2011
It was revealed Saturday that South Korea's consul general-elect in Hiroshima is the son of a man who experienced the 1945 atomic bombing of the city and took the lead in a campaign to win Japanese compensation for South Korean victims until his death in 1999.
''It feels like my late father is telling me, 'You should serve the cause of peace,''' Shin Hyong Gun, 57, said in an interview with Kyodo News.
''Hiroshima is the place where my father dedicated his whole life to the deepening of South Korea-Japan relations. It is my pleasure to be able to work there,'' he said. ''I would like to abide by his wishes and work on expanding peaceful ties.''
He is currently serving as consul general in Shenyang, China, and is slated to take the post as early as in March. It will be his first long-term duty in Japan.
His father, Shin Yong Su, was forcibly recruited to work for a Japanese military-designated pharmaceutical company in Hiroshima in 1942 and exposed to radiation when the United States dropped an atom bomb on the city in 1945 during World War II.
In 1967 he established an association supporting South Koreans who were likewise exposed to radiation during the blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and returned to their country after the end of the war, and demanded the Japanese government pay them compensation.
Many Koreans were forcibly brought to Japan to work as laborers during Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and those who were in and around the two Japanese cities at the time of the bombings were exposed to radiation. But the Japanese government had long refused to give compensation or a government allowance for foreign atomic-bomb victims living outside Japan.
In 1974, he became the first foreign resident who was officially given a certificate to receive such allowances.
Shin Hyong Gun, his eldest son, said that his father told him to ''work for humankind and causes, not for money or your own interests.''
The appointment has been welcomed by both Japanese and South Korean atomic-bomb victims.
''I'd like him to learn about the atomic bombings while he is in Hiroshima and become the voice of the victims,'' said former Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka.
Hiraoka, a former reporter of Chugoku Shimbun which is a leading newspaper in the region including Hiroshima, has supported South Korean victims of the bombing. ''I hope he can help atomic-bomb victims recover their rights,'' he said.
Nobuto Hirano, 67, who is also the son of a victim and had contact with the consul general's father before he died at the age of 80, recalled Shin as ''an outstanding leader.'' Hirano, who has dealt with the atomic-bomb victim issue in Nagasaki for more than 20 years, said ''It's his destiny to be deployed to Hiroshima. I hope he will visit Nagasaki too.''
Kim Yong Gil, incumbent head of the South Korean victims association, said, ''I want him to make efforts to eliminate discrimination between Japanese and South Korean victims.''
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Jan. 22, 2011)
''It feels like my late father is telling me, 'You should serve the cause of peace,''' Shin Hyong Gun, 57, said in an interview with Kyodo News.
''Hiroshima is the place where my father dedicated his whole life to the deepening of South Korea-Japan relations. It is my pleasure to be able to work there,'' he said. ''I would like to abide by his wishes and work on expanding peaceful ties.''
He is currently serving as consul general in Shenyang, China, and is slated to take the post as early as in March. It will be his first long-term duty in Japan.
His father, Shin Yong Su, was forcibly recruited to work for a Japanese military-designated pharmaceutical company in Hiroshima in 1942 and exposed to radiation when the United States dropped an atom bomb on the city in 1945 during World War II.
In 1967 he established an association supporting South Koreans who were likewise exposed to radiation during the blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and returned to their country after the end of the war, and demanded the Japanese government pay them compensation.
Many Koreans were forcibly brought to Japan to work as laborers during Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and those who were in and around the two Japanese cities at the time of the bombings were exposed to radiation. But the Japanese government had long refused to give compensation or a government allowance for foreign atomic-bomb victims living outside Japan.
In 1974, he became the first foreign resident who was officially given a certificate to receive such allowances.
Shin Hyong Gun, his eldest son, said that his father told him to ''work for humankind and causes, not for money or your own interests.''
The appointment has been welcomed by both Japanese and South Korean atomic-bomb victims.
''I'd like him to learn about the atomic bombings while he is in Hiroshima and become the voice of the victims,'' said former Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka.
Hiraoka, a former reporter of Chugoku Shimbun which is a leading newspaper in the region including Hiroshima, has supported South Korean victims of the bombing. ''I hope he can help atomic-bomb victims recover their rights,'' he said.
Nobuto Hirano, 67, who is also the son of a victim and had contact with the consul general's father before he died at the age of 80, recalled Shin as ''an outstanding leader.'' Hirano, who has dealt with the atomic-bomb victim issue in Nagasaki for more than 20 years, said ''It's his destiny to be deployed to Hiroshima. I hope he will visit Nagasaki too.''
Kim Yong Gil, incumbent head of the South Korean victims association, said, ''I want him to make efforts to eliminate discrimination between Japanese and South Korean victims.''
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Jan. 22, 2011)
