Japanese doctors, officials visit Busan to help Korean A-bomb victims

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Japanese doctors, officials visit Busan to help Korean A-bomb victims

Published: 13 Nov. 2024, 15:44

LIM JEONG-WON
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An atomic bomb survivor visits the Busan branch of the Korean Red Cross and receives medical advice from Japanese medical staff on Tuesday. [LEE EUN-JI]

Japanese officials and medical staff visited Busan for three days from Monday to help Korean atomic bomb survivors, providing medical consultations and support.

A total of nine people, including three Nagasaki Prefecture officials and six radiation specialists from the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Hospital and Nagasaki University Hospital, met with Korean atomic bomb survivors at the Busan branch of the Korean Red Cross. They met with 227 atomic bomb survivors in the Busan area starting from Monday.

Some 30,000 Koreans, many of them who were in Japan as wartime forced laborers, were killed in Hiroshima during the bombing in 1945, which took place toward the end of the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule over Korea. There were an estimated 50,000 Korean victims of the bombing, according to the Korea Atomic Bombs Victim Association.

“We will support every last Korean atomic bomb survivor,” said Yuichi Taniguchi, one of the Nagasaki Prefecture administrative officials who visited Busan.

As of October this year, there were 1,622 Korean atomic bomb survivors, with an average age of 84. Around 100 survivors die each year. Japanese government officials and medical staff have visited Korea since 2005 to help atomic bomb survivors.

“The Korean and Japanese governments signed an agreement in 2005 to support Koreans who were exposed to the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 during World War II,” said Oh Sang-eun, head of the Korean Red Cross’s support division on atomic bomb survivors and Sakhalin Koreans. “We divide the country into six regions and provide medical consultation in two regions yearly.”

A total of 6,848 people have received consultations through this program so far, according to Oh.

Koreans who have survived the atomic bombs are still suffering and living in pain.

“I survived the atomic bomb when I was three, and I lost sight in my right eye when I was seven,” said Kim Il-lak, an 82-year-old survivor. “I lived just two kilometers away from where the atomic bomb was dropped. My younger sister died when she was twelve, and my younger brother died of colon cancer in 2015. I myself have suffered depression since my 30s and have not been able to engage in normal economic activities at all.”

Kim, who is currently living on funds from basic livelihood programs by the government, said that her son was also diagnosed with kidney disease five years ago.

“I feel guilty because I think my son got sick because of me,” she said.

“There are many victims of the atomic bomb who suffer from mental health issues, such as grief and guilt over losing family members,” said Haru Sugamasa, a doctor from the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Hospital. “I know their pain well because my maternal grandmother was also a victim of the atomic bomb.”

Since there are no medical professionals specializing in radiation exposure in Korea, visiting Japanese medical professionals are a great help to the survivors mentally.

“Even survivors who do not suffer from illnesses worry about whether they are affected by radiation from the atomic bomb if they are even slightly sick, so they have a hard time psychologically,” said Misa Imaizumi, a doctor at the Radiation Effect Research Institute, a Japanese government agency. “Many survivors say that their emotional anxiety is relieved by having people listen to their stories.”

Second-generation Korean atomic bomb survivors and their descendants cannot receive government support even if they suffer from rare and incurable diseases.

“Not only the survivors themselves but also the second and third generations often suffer from aftereffects,” said Lee Jeong-bu, deputy director of the Busan branch of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association. “I was also affected by the atomic bomb when I was two, and my grandson was diagnosed with an intellectual disability, which I think is largely due to genetic influence.”

Regarding this, research to determine whether the aftereffects of atomic bomb survivors are genetically passed on has also been conducted since 2009 by institutions such as the Hanyang University College of Medicine. Research results utilizing next-generation sequencing technology are expected to be released this year.

“Since there is no evidence that illnesses are passed on to descendants, even if the second generation suffers from a disease suspected to be related to the atomic bombs, they are not able to receive help,” said Lee. “I hope that research results that provide such evidence will come out to correct this.”

The number of members of the Korean Atomic Bomb Second Generation Survivors Association, a group of second-generation atomic bomb survivors fighting diseases, is approximately 1,300.

BY LEE EUN-JI, LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]