Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, second from right, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol offer silent prayers before a memorial for South Korean atomic bomb victims at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 21. Kishida is flanked by his wife, Yuko. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, is to her husband’s right. (Pool)

While recounting their experiences of the atomic bombing, many Hiroshima hibakusha start their narratives with what they remember of the blinding flash of light they saw on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945.

But that is never the case with survivors who were originally from the Korean Peninsula. Their stories invariably begin with why they were in Japan at the time.

This difference was inescapable to Takashi Hiraoka, 95, a journalist-turned-politician, who served two terms as mayor of Hiroshima from 1991 to 1999.

In “Muen no Kaikyo,” a book he published 40 years ago about ethnic Koreans who survived the Hiroshima bombing, Hiraoka identified this difference as the “core” of what defined them.

To write the book, Hiraoka interviewed numerous hibakusha and traveled to South Korea, where he heard their voices of anguish firsthand, which, in turn, must have brought about the epiphany he eventually had.

Hiroshima symbolizes a history of victimhood, but that does not mean the city is free of the terrible mistakes that Japan made.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Koreans were said to have experienced the atomic bombing, but the real number is unknown to this day. As to why they happened to be in Hiroshima, this cannot be discussed without bringing up the history of Japan’s wartime colonialism.

“The history of a nation consists not only of its history of glory, but also of its history of shame,” Hiraoka once wrote. “And we Japanese must continue to bear both.”

Since the end of World War II, that issue has remained deeply politicized in Japan-South Korea relations.

A memorial monument to console the souls of ethnic Korean victims of the bombing was erected in 1970, but the Japanese government initially refused to have it properly placed inside the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

It was not until 1998 that the monument was finally relocated to inside the park, when Hiraoka was the mayor of Hiroshima at the time.

The Group of Seven summit wrapped up in Hiroshima on May 21. On that morning, the leaders of Japan and South Korea stood together before the monument--which bears inscriptions in both kanji and Hangul--for the first time in the 78 years after the end of the war.

White lilies gently swayed in the May breeze.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 22

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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