Hibakusha diaries: Shin Hyong Gun, South Korean consul general in Hiroshima, points to exhibits featuring the diaries of foreign atomic bomb survivors at the city’s peace museum on July 15.

by Robert Moorehead

An estimated 30,000 Koreans, many forced laborers, were killed by the atomic blast in Hiroshima, and another 10,000 in Nagasaki. Myths of Japanese homogeneity have limited our understanding of the extent of the suffering in the war. Colonial powers are, by definition, multiethnic, and Japan was no exception. This exhibit helps us recognize this fact.

Links: Japan Times, Mainichi Daily News, David Palmer’s article in Japan Focus