“Please be healthy. Come to your homeland once. We will take care of you.”
President Yoon Seok-yeol met Park Nam-joo (91), a Korean atomic bomb victim, in Hiroshima, Japan on the 19th and said this. Ms. Park said, “As a Korean-Japanese and as a victim of the atomic bombing, I shed tears several times as I faced this day.”
On the 20th, the presidential office uploaded a video of President Yoon’s meeting with fellow countrymen who suffered from the atomic bombing at a hotel in Hiroshima the day before on YouTube. President Yoon said this to Park and asked other Koreans who suffered the atomic bombing to “visit Korea sometime soon.”
In the video released by the president’s office, the contents of the conversation cannot be heard in detail. According to the President’s Office and attendees, Mr. Park said, “I remember very clearly President Yoon moving the chair,” and “I heard the feeling, ‘I’ve lived this far.'” As President Yoon started the meeting, he mentioned that he personally pushed the chair so that Mr. Park could sit comfortably.
After shaking hands with President Yoon, Mr. Park wrapped his hands around President Yoon’s hands and put his cheeks together to express his delight.
President Yoon Seok-yeol assists Park Nam-joo, former chairman of the Special Committee on Countermeasures against Atomic Bomb Victims of Korea, before a meeting with fellow Hiroshima atomic bomb victims held at a hotel in Hiroshima on the 19th메이저사이트. /Newsis
Mr. Park was active as a Korean survivor of atomic bombing in Hiroshima, and served as the second chairman of the Special Committee on Countermeasures for Korean Atomic Bomb Victims.
The meeting was attended by 10 Korean atomic bomb victims, the Hiroshima branch of the Korean People’s Association in Japan (Mindan), and officials from the Korean Association. President Yoon bowed his head and said, “As the President of the Republic of Korea, I apologize for meeting you late.”
The atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 of Hiroshima’s population of 330,000. It is estimated that 20,000 Koreans died and 50,000 were injured. However, compared to issues such as comfort women and forced labor in previous governments, the issue of atomic bomb victims has received relatively little attention.
This is the first time a South Korean president has met atomic bomb victims. President Yoon said, “When our compatriots were bombed by the atomic bomb, we were in a colonial state, and although we were liberated and independent right away, the country was weak, and it was really difficult to be invaded by communism.” You are suffering, but the government and state of the Republic of Korea were not by your side.”
He said, “Everyone, you have suffered a lot in the meantime. Some attendees were also caught on video wiping away tears during President Yoon’s remarks.