Memorial service held in Hiroshima for Korean victims of 1945 A-bomb

A memorial service for Korean victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima was held Wednesday in the western Japan city, with organizers dedicating a registry containing the names of 2,826 victims.

The service, which took place a day before the anniversary of the bombing during World War II, was held near a monument for Korean victims in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Two survivors whose deaths were confirmed in the past year were added to the registry.

Many Koreans were in Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the atomic bombs were dropped in August 1945, having come to Japan as conscripted laborers or for economic opportunities.

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An estimated 70,000 of them were exposed to the blasts, with about 40,000 believed to have died shortly afterward, although the exact figure remains unknown.

Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until the end of the war in 1945, and many Koreans came to work in Japan, including as conscripted laborers, amid a labor shortage. /dl