80 Years On, Korean Survivors Of WWII Atomic Bombs Still Suffer

Many Have Struggled With Health Issues And Stigma, Keeping Their Pain A Secret

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HAPCHEON, South Korea — Ms Bae Kyung-mi was five years old when the Americans dropped "Little Boy" — the atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945. Like thousands of other ethnic Koreans working in the Japanese city at the time, her family kept the horror a secret.

Many feared the stigma from doing menial work for colonial ruler Japan, and false rumors that radiation sickness was contagious. Ms Bae recalls hearing planes overhead while she was playing at her home in Hiroshima on that day. Within minutes, she was buried in rubble.

Ms Bae, now 85, told AFP: "I told my mum in Japanese, 'Mum! There are airplanes!'" She passed out shortly after. Her home collapsed on top of her, but the debris shielded her from the burns that killed tens of thousands of people — including her aunt and uncle.

After the family moved back to Korea, they did not speak of their experience.

"I never told my husband that I was in Hiroshima and a victim of the bombing," she said.

"Back then, people often said you had married the wrong person if he or she was an atomic bombing survivor."

Her two sons learned she had been in Hiroshima only when she registered at a special center set up in 1996 in South Korea's Hapcheon for victims of the bombings, she said.

Ms Bae said she feared her children would suffer from radiation-related illnesses that afflicted her, forcing her to have her ovaries and a breast removed because of the high cancer risk.