Remembering the Koreans who also died in Hiroshima-Nagasaki

 

Memorial to Koreans killed in Hiroshima

 

By Makiko Sato

Thank you for writing on Hiroshima-Nagasaki, the guinea-pig GI soldiers, and Allen Dulles.

In case you don't know: Allen Dulles deceptively protracted the negotiation with his Japanese counterpart, regarding Japan's condition after nearing unconditional surrender as demanded by the Allies, suggesting that the emperor might be able to keep his status, actually only buying time so that the Manhattan project team could complete 'Fatman.'

This story is known to some Hiroshima citizens.

I just want to say that you had better include the historical fact that nearly as many Koreans having brought to Hiroshima died (according to Sung-Hee Choi, the number was around 80,000) as those Japanese directly died of the bombs.

I checked it, after Sung-Hee's suggestion, with the director of the Korean institution in Hiroshima.

He let me know at that time (more than 10 years back) that Korean forced laborers in Hiroshima were made to stay at poor dwelling huts in a suburb where there were no lighting at night.

So, he wrote that Korean forced laborers should not have died directly because of the bomb.

The bomb was precisely dropped onto the bridge in the city-center, at the busiest time in the morning.

The US forces must have researched for the most exact possible place and time to attain the highest death number.

So I realized that they, 80,000 Koreans, according to Sung-Hee, died because of the strong radiation effects, doing such forced work of burning burnt bodies of Japanese citizens, maybe on the day and on and on, because those Koreans were only left-behind man-power for the cleaning-up of the city.

~ Makiko Sato is a Global Network member who some years ago organized a speaking tour for Bruce Gagnon in her community in Japan.