An association of South Korean atomic bomb survivors said Thursday it will send representatives to Hiroshima for U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit to the city on May 27.
In order to make Obama aware that people from the Korean Peninsula were among the victims of two atomic bombings by the U.S. on Japan during World War II, the Korea Atomic Bomb Victim Association hopes to unfurl a banner near a monument to Korean victims at Peace Memorial Park.
The association also plans to send a letter to Obama asking him to offer flowers at the monument, recognize the existence of survivors in South Korea, offer an apology and provide compensation.
It reached the decision at a meeting of its governing body in Hapcheon, a farming community in southeastern South Korea dubbed "South Korea's Hiroshima" as it is home to many Korean victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings who relocated there from Japan after the war.
Obama will go to Hiroshima, the site of the U.S. atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after attending a two-day Group of Seven summit in Shima, Mie Prefecture.
Koreans are the largest group of non-Japanese atomic bomb victims. A survivors' association estimates that about 30,000 of the 70,000 Koreans in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time lived through the bombings.