Korean A-bomb survivors in Japan hold 1st memorial in Hiroshima
The association had planned to hold its own ceremony after a unified memorial commemorating both North and South Korean victims is built, but uncertainty over the project prompted the group to proceed on the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.
Many Koreans were in Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the atomic bombs were dropped in August 1945, having come to Japan as conscripted laborers or for economic opportunities. An estimated 70,000 were exposed to the blasts, with about 40,000 dying shortly afterward.
The Hiroshima branch of the pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan, or Mindan, has been holding its own ceremony every year to mark the Aug. 6 bombing at a monument dedicated to South Korean victims in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. Its commemorative ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday this year.
Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until the end of the war in 1945, and many Koreans came to work in Japan, including as conscripted laborers, amid a labor shortage.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yomiuri Shimbun
11 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japanese Descendant Left Behind in the Philippines After World War II to Visit Family in Japan for 1st Time
SAN PABLO, Philippines — A son of a Japanese man, who was left behind in the Philippines during the turmoil after the end of World War II, was expected to visit Japan for the first time Wednesday. He plans to meet his siblings living in Osaka and visit the grave of his father. Jose Takei, who lives in Laguna Province's San Pablo near Manila, was born in May 1943 to Benita Abril and Ginjiro Takei, an engineer for the Philippine national railway company. Abril was separated from Ginjiro while pregnant with Jose. Ginjiro had left a doll with Abril, saying he will return someday, and she had cherished the doll as a memory of him but lost it during the post-war turmoil. Jose Takei, 82, said he had believed his mother's second husband was his biological father when he was very young. However, when he was eight or nine years old, he asked his mother if it was true that he's the child of a Japanese person, like a neighbor had said. She told him that his real father had returned to Japan. Because of the war, anti-Japanese sentiment was strong in the Philippines and Takei was bullied at school, being called a bad person. Takei said he felt pent up anger toward his father for not returning to the Philippines and failing to keep his promise. Takei married in 1965 and had four sons and three daughters. Over time, his anger toward his father faded, and his interest in his origin grew. A turning point came in 2009. With the assistance of the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center, a Tokyo-based support group, and other parties, Takei was able to identify his father through records from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. His father returned to Japan after the war, lived in Osaka and died in 2005, the same year as his mother. Last year, Takei saw a photo of his father for the first time. His children told him Ginjiro looks just like their father. During his stay in Japan, Takei plans to learn from his siblings about his father's life. He also plans to visit his father's grave and ask him why he could not keep his promise to his wife. Many second-generation Japanese-Filipinos were forced to be stateless as they were unable to obtain even Philippine citizenship due to the Philippines' patriarchal policy at the time of their births, under which children acquire citizenship though their father. Japan's Foreign Ministry has been supporting their acquisition of Japanese nationality since 1995 with the cooperation of a Japanese-Filipino association. However, it is difficult to for the descendants to create a new family register in Japan without clear documented proof. According to the legal support center, there were an estimated 372 second-generation Japanese-Filipinos without Japanese nationality as of the end of March, including those whose whereabouts are unknown. The average age of the descendants is over 83. 'On the occasion of Takei's visit to Japan, we want to extend support to other second-generation Japanese descendants,' a Foreign Ministry official said.
Kyodo News
12 hours ago
- Kyodo News
FOCUS: U.S. restoring Pacific island wartime airfield for deterrence
TINIAN - The United States is restoring a World War II-era airfield on Tinian, a tiny, strategically important Pacific island in its territory in the Northern Mariana Islands used as a launching point for U.S. nuclear strikes on Japan 80 years ago, as it ramps up deterrence against China. Once completed, North Field airfield will give the U.S. military's expeditionary forces more flexibility to maneuver across the Pacific amid concerns over growing Chinese influence in the region, according to a ranking U.S. Navy official. "We can move forces there, train there, practice and work with allies," U.S. Rear Adm. Gregory Huffman, then Commander of the Joint Task Force -- Micronesia, said of the project's impact in a Kyodo News interview in April. "That builds up that readiness, that operational efficiency, and increases the lethality," he said. "All of that adds to a deterrent effect by demonstrating that we have the forces ready to counter any kind of activity that or nefarious," he added. Located south of the Northern Marianas' most populated island of Saipan, Tinian is around 101 square kilometers in size and lies approximately 2,400 kilometers south of Japan. The U.S. military is currently leasing two-thirds of the island. The island was occupied by Japan before WWII but was won by the United States in a fierce battle in 1944, becoming an important Allied base during the latter stages of the war. In 1945, U.S. B-29 aircraft took off from North Field's runways to conduct an air raid on Tokyo. The atomic bombers that attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, were also launched from North Field. Following the bombings of the two cities, Japan surrendered to Allied forces on Aug. 15, marking the end of the war. Officials said the approximately $500 million North Field rehabilitation project commenced in 2024, with two of the four runways targeted for completion by 2027. U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Corey Bower, whose unit is involved in the reconstruction project, told Kyodo News that clearing the runways of overgrown vegetation and unexploded ordnance is "progressing very well", and surface construction could start before the end of the year. Huffman said North Field will not become a permanent U.S. base but could be used for training with allies such as Japan. For U.S. Pacific Air Forces, it could be an "alternate location" to the airbase on Guam in the event of a conflict. Aside from North Field, the U.S. military is close to completing an almost $300 million airfield, named Divert, on the north side of Tinian's airport, with a runway to be shared by commercial aircraft. It also rebuilt a Japanese wartime runway on Palau's Peleliu island. The U.S. military said refurbishing airfields rather than building new facilities is more cost effective and reduces disruption to local communities. Arnold Palacios, the late governor of the Northern Marianas, expressed mixed feelings toward the U.S. military build-up when he spoke to Kyodo News in April before his sudden death on July 23. He said that while nobody wants war, there is a need to be prepared given the tensions between the United States and China. He also said he could see a scenario in which the United States flies bombers carrying nuclear weapons from these airfields. Local residents understand the risks associated with their island hosting military facilities. Tinian is so small that there is no way for locals to escape in an attack as part of a wider U.S.-China armed conflict, said a resident who requested anonymity. "We hope they don't use (restored airfields) to drop bombs, to hurt and to kill people. That, we don't want to be a part of," said Tinian Mayor Edwin Aldan, even as he acknowledged the security and economic windfall the U.S. presence gives the island of 2,000 people.
Yomiuri Shimbun
16 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
‘Mock Atomic Bombs' Dropped Across Japan Near War's End; Hundreds Killed in Missions to Test Trajectory, Boost Accuracy
'Mock atomic bombs' were dropped across Japan in July and August 1945, just before the end of World War II, to test their trajectory and thereby improve the accuracy of the devastating bombs that would ultimately be unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Forty-nine such bombs — each weighing 4.5 tons, nearly the same weight as the 'Fat Man' bomb released over Nagasaki — were dropped on 18 prefectures. They contained conventional explosives but had enough power to create craters upon impact. About 400 people are said to have died in these bombings. Bereaved families say the damage caused by the atomic bombs is not limited to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 'No remains were found, just a deformed coin purse,' said Yoshiaki Matsuura, 88, from Otsu. He was remembering the day 80 years ago when his older sister, Haruko, then 16, was killed by a mock atomic bomb. Haruko was the eldest of eight children. Matsuura remembers how she would go into the yard in a white apron and call out to her siblings, 'Lunch is ready!' Haruko attended a local girls' school. On the day of the air raid, she was working at the Toyo Rayon Co.'s Shiga Plant — now the Shiga factory for Toray Industries, Inc. — 2.5 kilometers from her home. A U.S. B-29 bomber dropped a mock atomic bomb on the plant on the morning of July 24, 1945. The building was blown to pieces, and a fire broke out. Her family searched for Haruko at the factory and her school, but her whereabouts remained unknown. Six months after the air raid, the family got a call from the plant. Matsuura went there with his mother and brother and found a coin purse that Haruko had used among the belongings of the victims. The purse was originally decorated with red beads, but it had turned purple and was bent out of shape, apparently due to the fire. Her remains were never found, so the purse was placed in her grave as a keepsake. The air raid is said to have killed 16 people and injured over 100. Matsuura himself was also caught in an air raid during the war. Born with a disability in his hip joint, he cannot move quickly. Even so, every time an air raid siren sounded, he had to evacuate to a safe place. After the war, he struggled to make ends meet, eating nuts and begging at the station to survive. His younger sister died of malnutrition. Even amid his hardships, he never forgot about Haruko. About 20 years ago, Matsuura was told by a researcher that the bomb destroyed the Shiga Plant was a 'practice bomb.' 'I never imagined it was a bomb connected to the atomic bomb,' he said in shock. 'It's ordinary citizens who bore the brunt of the war. We lost our loved ones and had our lives shattered.' Civil group sheds light A citizens group in Aichi Prefecture eventually shed light on the existence of the mock atomic bombs, which had been buried in history since the end of the war. The group to record World War II in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, was formed in 1986 by middle school teachers and others. Members scrutinized a U.S. military report that surveyed the effects of the bombing of Japan, trying to learn more about the Aug. 14, 1945, air raid on Kasugai. The group found the term 'Special 17' in the margins of the report. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known among researchers as 'Special Mission 13' and 'Special Mission 16.' Group member Tsutomu Kaneko, 74, intuitively felt that 'the air raid on Kasugai and the atomic bombs were connected.' In 1991, Kaneko discovered a list of sortie missions and maps for the 509th Composite Group, a special unit formed by the U.S. military to drop the atomic bombs, at the National Diet Library, Japan. The documents referred to 'Special Missions,' listing Hiroshima and Nagasaki alongside locations in Kasugai. When conducting research at an air force base in Alabama, Kaneko also discovered the 509th Composite Group's special mission report detailing its bombings. Yozo Kudo, 75, a member of an association to record air raids and war damage across Japan, eventually joined the investigation. They discovered that B-29 bombers had carried mock atomic bombs of the same shape and weight as the actual ones and conducted secret training missions over Japan. Kaneko's civil group revealed that a total of 49 bombs were dropped across 18 prefectures, and identified the impact points of 46 of them. 'I want many people to remember that the first nuclear weapons were used in Japan, and various regions across the nation served as testing grounds,' Kaneko said. Kudo said, 'We can understand the overall plan behind the A-bombings by learning about the 49 mock bombings.'
