Hibakusha to Attend Nobel Ceremony from ROK, Brazil; A-Bomb Victims Outside Japan were Long Treated Differently

By Sayaka Nambu and Daiki Komatsu / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

18:03 JST, December 6, 2024

Atomic bomb survivors who now live in South Korea and Brazil will also attend the ceremony at which Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) will receive the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

These individuals have long advocated the eradication of disparities between support provided to atomic bomb survivors abroad and those in Japan, on the grounds that hibakusha, as the survivors are known, should be treated the same no matter where they are. While in Oslo to attend the ceremony, these hibakusha will convey a message about the struggles they endured over the decades and the horrors of nuclear weapons.

Jeong Won-sul, Chairman of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, is looking forward to attending the ceremony in the Norwegian capital. “I want to tell the world to not let nuclear weapons cause harm again,” said Jeong, 81.

The association is based in Hapcheon, a town known as “South Korea’s Hiroshima” in a mountainous part of South Gyeongsang Province. Many residents here moved to Hiroshima seeking work while the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule after Japan annexed Korea in 1910, and returned after Hiroshima had been devastated by the atomic bombing. About 240 hibakusha, more than 10% of those registered with the association, still live in Hapcheon.

Jeong’s parents relocated to Hiroshima in about 1940. He was born in Hiroshima and was at home with his mother when the atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945. Jeong’s family returned to Hapcheon in 1946, but his father constantly grumbled that he felt fatigued. Jeong repeatedly urged his father to see a doctor, but his father stubbornly refused, possibly because the family was strapped for money. Jeong’s father died from an unidentified disease at age 60.

For many years, hibakusha living overseas were not eligible to receive assistance from the Japanese government. In 1974, the then Health and Welfare Ministry issued an official notice declaring that hibakusha could not receive any allowances if they were not in Japan. Hibakusha living abroad were not provided any health care allowances until that notice was repealed in 2003. In 2016, these hibakusha were finally able to have their full medical expenses covered if they possessed an officially issued Atomic Bomb Survivor’s Health Handbook.

Jeong still has a nagging thought in the back of his mind. “Perhaps my father also might’ve been able to receive medical treatment if that support had started sooner,” he said.

With a mentor’s photo

Brazil also has a large population of hibakusha. Among them is 82-year-old Junko Watanabe, who will attend the ceremony and was just 2 years old when she survived the atomic bombing.

Watanabe lost her mentor in life, Takashi Morita, in August. Morita was a former head of a Brazilian association of hibakusha and had devoted himself to delivering relief for hibakusha overseas until he died at age 100.

Morita was 21 when the atomic bomb was dropped while he was in Hiroshima. He developed leukemia and decided in 1956 to take his family to Brazil, which he heard had nice weather and was a comfortable place to live. Morita established the Brazilian association in 1984 and paved the way to hibakusha getting financial assistance by taking steps such as filing legal cases calling for the provision of such payments. Morita also was enthusiastic about passing down the experiences of hibakusha to others.

Watanabe joined the association at Morita’s invitation. They traveled together to various locations to speak about their experiences after the atomic bombing and to raise awareness about the existence of hibakusha in countries other than Japan.

“I hope the Nobel Peace Prize will become a major stepping stone toward a world without nuclear weapons, which is what Mr. Morita desired,” Watanabe said.

Watanabe intends to attend the ceremony while holding a photo of Morita.