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199395
Fri, 08/05/2011 - 17:45
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S. Korean consul recalls father's experience at A-bomb ceremony
HIROSHIMA, Aug. 5 Kyodo -
South Korea's consul general in Hiroshima commemorated Friday the deaths of more than 20,000 Koreans in the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, at a ceremony held a day before the 66th anniversary of the world's first nuclear attack.
Consul General Shin Hyong Gun said the experience recalled memories of his father, who survived the atomic bombing of the city.
''I imagined there was a dreadful sea of fire due to the atomic bombing. I also thought about my father who made continuous efforts to help the Korean A-bomb survivors,'' Shin told reporters following the ceremony attended by around 230 people at the Monument to Korean Victims and Survivors in the Peace Memorial Park.
Shin's father, Shin Yong Su, who was the founder and former president of an association of South Korean survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, died in 1999 at age 80.
''I want to continue to make efforts for the A-bomb survivors,'' Shin, 52, said, urging the Japanese authorities to further expand compensation for survivors.
The monument was built in honor of many Koreans who suffered the bombing while living in Hiroshima at the time as soldiers, civilian employees of the army, as well as students and ordinary citizens during Japan's colonial rule over the Korea Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
The monument is dedicated to 2,663 South Korean victims.
Six dancers wearing traditional ''hanbok'' Korean dress opened the ceremony with a dance performance created in repose of the victims' souls.
The consul general also said, ''It is important that we solidify and make Japan-South Korea relations forward-looking, so that the tragic past will not be repeated, and to prevent the use of atomic weapons.''
Referring to the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Kwon Oh Won, the head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Branch of the Organization of Korean Residents in Japan, said, ''People have again been affected by nuclear power. We must understand that humankind and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.''
Kwon's organization built the monument in 1970, outside the park. The Korean victims were not given any funerals or memorial services, even as World War II ended. The monument was moved inside the memorial park in 1999.
South Korea's consul general in Hiroshima commemorated Friday the deaths of more than 20,000 Koreans in the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, at a ceremony held a day before the 66th anniversary of the world's first nuclear attack.
Consul General Shin Hyong Gun said the experience recalled memories of his father, who survived the atomic bombing of the city.
''I imagined there was a dreadful sea of fire due to the atomic bombing. I also thought about my father who made continuous efforts to help the Korean A-bomb survivors,'' Shin told reporters following the ceremony attended by around 230 people at the Monument to Korean Victims and Survivors in the Peace Memorial Park.
Shin's father, Shin Yong Su, who was the founder and former president of an association of South Korean survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, died in 1999 at age 80.
''I want to continue to make efforts for the A-bomb survivors,'' Shin, 52, said, urging the Japanese authorities to further expand compensation for survivors.
The monument was built in honor of many Koreans who suffered the bombing while living in Hiroshima at the time as soldiers, civilian employees of the army, as well as students and ordinary citizens during Japan's colonial rule over the Korea Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
The monument is dedicated to 2,663 South Korean victims.
Six dancers wearing traditional ''hanbok'' Korean dress opened the ceremony with a dance performance created in repose of the victims' souls.
The consul general also said, ''It is important that we solidify and make Japan-South Korea relations forward-looking, so that the tragic past will not be repeated, and to prevent the use of atomic weapons.''
Referring to the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Kwon Oh Won, the head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Branch of the Organization of Korean Residents in Japan, said, ''People have again been affected by nuclear power. We must understand that humankind and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.''
Kwon's organization built the monument in 1970, outside the park. The Korean victims were not given any funerals or memorial services, even as World War II ended. The monument was moved inside the memorial park in 1999.
