뉴스레터

It was extremely hot when we visited Japan in mid-June. Besides, we were to visit four areas (Okinawa, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and Tokyo) in lower latitudes. The purpose of our trip was to visit memorial facilities within Japan and see how they remembered and wrote about Korean victims. Even though we were familiar with the facilities, our plan was to visit them all together in order to identify and compare their characteristics.

Okinawa Peace Memorial Park

The Okinawa Peace Memorial Park was built around Mabuni (摩文仁) Hill from which many people thrown themselves after a fierce battle at the end of the Pacific War. It was designated as an Okinawa prefectural park in 1965, then as Japan's only quasi-national park in 1972 when sovereignty over Okinawa was returned to Japan. The 'Cornerstone of Peace' inscribed with the names of victims was erected on June 23, 1995 by Okinawa Prefecture to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War/Okinawa War. The 'Cornerstone of Peace' consists of about 100 monuments inscribed with the names of a total of 241,167 people. About 10,000 Koreans lost their lives in the Battle of Okinawa, and 365 South Koreans and 82 North Koreans were identified and their names were inscribed on the cornerstone.

Memorial for Koreans in Okinawa

In the overcast yet stuffy weather, we spent about an hour looking around the memorial facilities built around Mabuni Hill by the prefectures before heading for the zone of the cenotaph for Koreans. Creating this zone was pushed forward by the 'Committee for the Construction of Cenotaph in Honor of Koreans' initiated by the Korean government while the park was under construction in 1975. The cenotaph indicates that its inscriptions are in the handwriting of President Park Chung-hee of South Korea, and the lyrics for the 'Song Dedicated to the Fallen' are by historian and poet Lee Eun-sang. The large heap of stones is said to be composed of rocks sent by every province of Korea.

And we stopped by the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum (established in 1975). Walking around in the museum, you will encounter a panel entitled "The Massacre of Koreans" which indicates that many people from the Korean peninsula, Japan's colony at the time, were taken by force and sent to military units across Okinawa where they were forced into arduous labor for the construction of airfields or at harbors, and not properly fed.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

After Okinawa, we flew to Nagasaki. It was difficult for us to walk around the Nagasaki Peace Park under the hot sun. The sun must have been much hotter and more difficult to endure on August 9 sixty years ago. And a vision of the atomic bomb going off in that heat was horrifying.

Monument for the Korea Victims of
the Nagasaki Bombing

When the Nagasaki Peace Park was rebuilt in 1975 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the bombing, it set up a world peace zone with monuments donated by 15 nations, of which seven were communist countries. Knowing the system of Eastern European countries at that time, I had the impression that their donation had been intended to criticize the U.S. for the bombing rather than to pray for peace. If that is the case, then that is an insult to prayer for peace. Standing in a small corner of the park was a monument in honor of Korean victims, created in 1979 by the 'Nagasaki Society for Protecting the Human Rights of the Korean-Japanese' with donations from citizens. The apology written in Japanese by the Society is effective in describing the suffering of Koreans forced into labor and expressing a contrite heart for them. And its English and Korean translations are also standing next to the original. But the Korean translation included many North Korean expressions and was poorly done. Some of the sentences even read as if a Korean was making apology for Japan. We escaped the hot weather in the park by entering the Atomic Bomb Museum. The exhibition starts with the panel 'Nagasaki Before the Bombing' with a very brief introduction to the history of Nagasaki. Specifically, it begins with "The citizens of Nagasaki were devoted workers, but the dropping of an atomic bomb left them...", and goes on to show how the United States made and proceeded with the decision to drop atomic bombs in 1945, and the devastating damage it caused. I couldn't escape the overall feeling that they tried to put emphasis only on the damage they had received. At the end of the exhibition room, they are showing video clips of the testimonies of foreign victims of the bombing. The information panel, under the heading "Foreign Victims of the Nagasaki Bombing," indicates that "the largest number of victims were Korean, and many of them had been taken by force from the Korean peninsula and made to work at munitions factories." On the other hand, the voice of the audio guide didn't single out Koreans and only said, "Listen to the victims' voices for peace. The victims of the bombing included many foreigners as well as Japanese people."

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Once we visited the Nagasaki Peace Park, we headed to Hiroshima at once. After a few days of walking around under the scorching sun, we were no longer as excited about the trip as he had been at the beginning. The information at the entrance to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park indicated that the park had a national memorial facility in addition to the Peace Memorial Museum, and also a separate monument for Koreans. After the passage of the Act on the Construction of the Hiroshima Peace City in 1949, the Peace Park was completed in 1954. And the museum was opened under the name Hiroshima Peace Hall Atomic Bombing Exhibition Hall in 1955, and went through several renovations. Compared to Nagasaki, Hiroshima offered a more detailed explanation on the Korean victims. "Migration of Farmers and Fishermen to Korea," "Taking Koreans and Chinese by Force" are among the titles under which the situations surrounding Koreans prior to the bombing were presented in text and audio. Also in the "Bombing" and "Foreign Victims of the Bombing" sections, it is explained that the bombing victims included many Koreans mobilized by force on the Japanese government's general mobilization order. The audio guide explains: "So many citizens of Hiroshima lost their lives, including those Koreans and Chinese who had been forcibly conscripted into the Japanese military." A walk outside the museum will bring you to a corner of the park where a monument stands in honor of the Korean victims of the atomic bombing. Built in 1970 by Mindan, this monument had been neglected by the river outside the park because of Hiroshima City's passive attitude and the conflict between Mindan and the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, until the protest from Mindan and CVOs decrying this neglect as an act of 'national discrimination,' as a result of which it was moved within the park in 1999, 29 years after its erection.

Chidorigafuchi〔千鳥ヶ淵〕 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier'

We went from Hiroshima to Tokyo by bullet train. In the morning of the last day of our trip, we finally visited Chidorigafuchi 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.' During the DPJ government years, it was considered a candidate of the national memorial facility to replace Yasukuni Shrine. Across the pond called Chidorigafuchi (created during the Edo era as a moat surrounding the castle), there was the residence of the Japanese emperor. On the opposite site, the pond is facing Yaskauni Shrine across a narrow road. This facility was built by the Japanese government (Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare) in 1959 to enshrine the remains of the unknown solders who died overseas. Identified dead bodies were enshrined in Yasukuni Shrine opposite the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That explains why the two facilities face each other. The remains collected by the Korean government's delegation from 1953 and by the units and individuals returning from overseas after the war are enshrined in the tomb. They probably include the remains of ordinary citizens as well as soldiers and their families who lost their lives overseas. As it is unknown when and in which battle they died, the expression used to describe them is only "those who lost their lives in the previous war (先の戰爭で)." The information board at the entrance includes audio information in five languages including Korean. But there was no mention of Korean people in the information or anywhere else in the facility. The estimated total number of the war dead since the Sino-Japanese War is 2.4 million. At least one percent of them, or 24,000 people, may have been Korean. Unfortunately, however, it cannot be proved.

Comparison of the Characteristics of the Four Memorial Facilities

The four facilities I visited differed from one another in terms of who built the monument to Koreans and how they described the bombing and the cause of the damage from the war. Specifically, in describing Korean victims, the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park was the most specific, and Nagasaki was more indirect than Hiroshima. And there was no mention whatsoever of Korean people in the Chidorigafuchi Tomb. I reserve more detailed comparison for later occasions. But let me point out that there are many errors found in the Korean translation on the monument for Koreans in the Nagasaki Peace Park and they require substantial revision.