Ten Thousand Things

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

One Thousand Cranes & One Turtle: Korean Victims of Hiroshima Bombing
Posted by Jean, August 16, 2005

Update – Feb. 18, 2005: "Top Court Sides with Korean hibakusha"

When I visited the Peace Park in Hiroshima, the two most frequented memorials I witnessed were that of Sadako, the 13-year-old girl who died from leukemia, while making a chain of cranes, hoping it would save her life, and the Monument to Korean Survivors and Victims.

Contrary to what I had heard about the indifference of Japanese people to the wartime suffering of Koreans, the faces of the people listening to their tour guides recount the story of the Korean war-slaves brought to Japan against their will, the 20,000 (or more) who died immediately from the atomic bomb blast, and the suffering of the survivors, told a different story. All were visibly moved. I stood and watched tour after tour.

Erected in 1970 by the Korean community, the city of Hiroshima forced it to be relegated on the outskirts of the park, arguing that the park was too crowded for another monument, which it obviously wasn't. However, in 1999, the mayor of Hiroshima, Takashi Hiraoka, make the decision to transfer it to the park.

Ninety percent of the Korean atom-bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who returned to Korea after the war, died because the Japanese government and Korean government did not give them support for medical treatment. In 1993, the Japanese government gave 4 billion yen to South Korea for institutional welfare purposes, but it did not compensate individuals who suffered from the atom bombings. It was not until 2003, that a Korean survivor won a Supreme Court case ordering medical compensation to survivors living in Korea as well as Japan. While the remaining survivors are not holding their breath regarding compensation for 2nd-generation survivors, they are committed to taking their story out of the dark and into public dialogue:

"'In contrast to former forced laborers or the so called comfort women these people were excluded from our history and abandoned,' says Kim Dong Lyul, the Korea Youth Corps head in Taegu. "We might not be able to help them get compensated, but we can keep their history."

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