NAGASAKI - Although the deaths of foreign victims in the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 have long been documented, a museum in the southwestern Japanese city has been trying to shed light on the actual death toll of Koreans and lesser-known aspects of World War II.
Perched on a hill nearly 3 kilometers north of ground zero, the Nagasaki Museum for Human Rights and Peace, run by a nonprofit organization, presents a view of history that portrays Japan not only as a victim of war but also as a nation that forcibly brought many Koreans to Japan and committed war crimes.
The estimated number of Korean casualties differs sharply between the group running the museum and municipal authorities.
"We suspect there were around 20,000 Koreans affected by the atomic bombing, including about 10,000 who died," said Tomohiro Shinkai, 70, former vice chairman of the museum.
The Nagasaki city government, meanwhile, officially estimates between 1,400 and 2,000 deaths among 12,000 to 13,000 Koreans affected by the bombing.
Shinkai added that the figure could rise to around 30,000 if "early entrant" atomic bomb survivors -- individuals exposed to residual radiation after entering the city shortly after the bombing -- as well as those exposed in utero, are included.
He contends that the museum's estimate is more precise than the city's estimates derived from existing literature because it is grounded in fieldwork conducted by a Nagasaki-based human rights advocacy group for Koreans.
"Following the Meiji Period, Japan invaded many parts of Asia, which led to many Koreans coming to Japan," Noboru Sakiyama, 67, chairman of the human rights museum, said. The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
The group notes that many Koreans living in Japan during the war were conscripted to work in coal mines, factories and other industrial sites. Many were also brought to Nagasaki to perform heavy labor, including work at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s shipyards.
This made the atomic bombing even more tragic for Koreans who, after being mobilized to Japan, became "hibakusha," as atomic bomb survivors are known, but were initially unable to receive Japanese health care benefits.
"The museum was established by citizens to preserve and pass down stories that are not taught in schools," Sakiyama said, referring to criticism from some historians and neighboring countries that Japan has downplayed aspects of its wartime conduct.
According to Sakiyama, a second-generation hibakusha whose parents were affected by the atomic bombing, the museum was originally conceived as a facility dedicated to Korean survivors of the bombing. However, the scope later expanded to include Japan's wartime atrocities.
Established in 1995, the two-story museum houses historical materials covering topics such as the Nanjing Massacre, forced labor, and the notorious Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army, and the challenges faced by atomic bomb survivors abroad.
The museum and the Nagasaki municipal government agree that 70,000 Koreans were living in Nagasaki Prefecture at the time. Shinkai believes that it is reasonable to estimate that 30,000 of those Koreans lived in the capital.
He said city officials have never provided a reliable estimate of the Korean population in Nagasaki at the time of the bombing, speculating that doing so would mean acknowledging that they had significantly underestimated the number of Koreans killed in the bombing.
Shinkai also discussed the hardships that Koreans endured after the war, especially those who survived the bombing and returned to Korea. He said they were not properly compensated because legislation providing relief to atomic bomb survivors initially applied only to Japanese citizens.
The group, which compiled its findings between 1982 and 2014, asked the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum to revise its figures to reflect its findings but the museum has stood by its initial estimate, although it does display the group's estimates alongside the city's official figures.
In recent years, the museum has seen a surge in foreign visitors, particularly from the United States and Europe, according to Shinkai.
"When we look at the feedback left by visitors, we notice a large number of comments written in English," he said, speaking about a board covered with Post-it notes left by visitors.
Piers Le Jeune, a visitor from Britain, said he found the museum online and decided to visit it as a student of history.
"I knew Japan was infamous for obscuring facts about wartime atrocities, so I was interested in a museum run by Japanese people that addressed Japanese war crimes," Le Jeune said.
Shinkai also noted an increase in visitors from China and South Korea, whom he said frequently leave positive comments.
"Many people believe the materials here will foster resentment among them, but the opposite is true. They only express appreciation," he said.
Sakiyama is particularly concerned about the declining number of Japanese students visiting the peace museum, and he says that his primary goal is to attract more middle and high school students.
He explained that young Japanese people are more likely to interact with people from other countries, whether by traveling abroad or meeting foreign visitors to Japan, making it ever more important for them to be educated about the country's past.
Sakiyama attributed the decline of young Japanese visitors to the museum to the dwindling number of atomic bomb survivors and others who experienced the war firsthand, leaving fewer people to speak publicly about those experiences.
"Memories of Japan's wartime aggression do not fade abroad simply because Japan fails to teach its young people about it," Sakiyama said. "I want them to be well informed about the past. Otherwise, I don't think they can truly build meaningful friendships."
