Atomic Bomb Testimony:
Atomic Bomb Testimony of a 2nd-Generation South Korean National in Japan
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by Lee Jongkeun
Atomic Bomb Witness for This Foundation
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That fateful moment
I was 16 years old, and on the morning of August 6, 1945, I had boarded the Miyajima line streetcar and was on my way to work at Hiroshima Engine Depot No. 2.
The streetcar left Hatsukaichi Station, and it was when I got off at the Matoba-cho stop, near Hiroshima Station, crossed Kojin Bridge over Enko-gawa River and entered Kojin Town that it happened.
There was a sudden yellowish beam of light.
The light remained for 2-3 seconds, and I looked around me, wondering what had happened.
I remember that the house in front of me looked like it was floating in that light.
We had been trained to cover our eyes, nose and ears with our fingers and lie down on the ground if there was a bomb blast, so I lay down where I was.
For that reason, I did not hear any sound.
After a while I stood and looked up.
Although it was just after 8 in the morning, everything was pitch black, like a dark night.
This was around 2km from the hypocenter.
Immediately after the bomb was dropped
The area around me gradually became lighter.
As far as I could see, all the buildings in the surrounding area were destroyed.
I realized that the cap and the glasses that I was wearing and lunchbox that I had been carrying were gone, and I ran around looking for them.
My lunchbox was lying where it had been thrown over 20 meters.
I did not find my hat or glasses, so I took my lunchbox and evacuated to the area under Kojin Bridge.
Under the bridge there were 4 or 5 adults who had also fled there.
One of them said to me "The skin on your face looks a little strange", and when I touched it I felt pain there.
I had been wearing the long-sleeved shirt and long trousers and cap that were my uniform at the Railway Bureau, but it seems that the parts of my body that were exposed – from my cheeks to my neck, and my hands – had been hit directly by the heat ray.
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Kojin Bridge after the bombing (photograph: Peace Memorial Museum)
Although the bridge's railing was damaged by the bomb, the bridge served its purpose
as an evacuation route.
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Eventually I started walking, intending to evacuate to my work place.
All the houses on both sides of the street had collapsed and were now mountains of rubble.
I could hear many people's voices coming from that rubble, saying "Help me, help me".
There were children's voices too, and I even saw someone sticking his head out from the rubble, crying out.
All I could think about was fleeing as quickly as possible, and I was not able to pull those people out.
Even though I was a child of 16, even today I cannot forget the fact that I could not help them.
Heading for Engine Depot No. 2
When I arrived at my workplace, I found that the building was still standing.
Because locomotives would go in and out of the building, it was an open structure with two sides facing one another, and it seems that it did not collapse because the blast from the bomb passed through.
My colleagues were inside at the time, so only a few of them had prominent external injuries.
As soon as they saw me they said "You've been burned".
Rather than the skin falling away, my burns had turned a red color.
They said that oil is good for burns, and applied to my burns black industrial oil that was used to repair locomotives.
It was so painful that I cried. I was completely black from my face to my neck.
After that I went to a nearby air-raid shelter and lay there until around midday, when I got hungry and ate lunch from my lunchbox.
Today I do not think that anyone would eat a lunchbox that had been exposed to an atomic bomb, but at the time I had absolutely no idea about the existence of radiation.
The tragic path home
At around 4pm, I decided to walk home with one of my colleagues, who was going in the same direction.
We passed through Inari Town and Yayoi Town, avoiding the central area of Hiroshima City, which was then blazing with fire.
It was when we were passing in front of Hiroshima University of Literature and Science in Higashi-Senda Town that we saw large numbers of charred corpses.
We then crossed a number of bridges and headed west.
Beside every bridge were crowds of people gathered.
They were burned bright red all over their bodies, and looking like ghosts they said "Give me water", looking desperately into the eyes of every single person who crossed the bridge.
I think they thought that if they stayed near a bridge the might see a relative or someone they knew.
At around 7pm when we arrived at national route 2, we saw a number of military trucks carrying piles of corpses and heading for Miyajima.
By the time I finally reached my home in Hera Village (currently Hatsukaichi City) it was after 11pm.
Reunited with family
The only people at home were my younger sister and brothers.
Because I had been hiding from my work the fact that I am Korean, I had not given my parents the address of my workplace.
Even so, they had gone to look for me.
On the morning of the next day, my mother came home; my father got home at around midday.
My mother said to me "Oh, you're alive!" and hugged me, sobbing with happiness.
However my older sister, who had been working at the former Army Clothing Depot, never made it home.
What I want to communicate as a hibakusha
In my atomic bomb testimony, what I want to emphasize is that it was not only Japanese people who were affected by the bomb.
There were many hibakusha who are not Japanese.
I want to continue giving my testimony as a hibakusha to communicate this fact, and ask why such people died from the bomb in Japan.
Finally, what I most want to say to people of younger generations is to have consideration for others.
If you have consideration for others, there will be no discrimination or bullying, and this means that eventually there will be no wars as well.
I fervently pray that we can create a world without discrimination as quickly as possible.
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Children listening attentively to the testimony
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Profile
[Lee Jongkeun]
Born in 1928 in Shimane Prefecture to parents who had traveled to Japan from the Korean Peninsula.
Just prior to graduation from a national high school, employed at the Hiroshima Railway Bureau in the Department of Transportation.
16 years old and employed at Hiroshima Engine Depot No. 2 when the atomic bomb hit while on the way to work, 2.2km from the hypocenter.
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