After the colonization of Korea by Imperial Japan, an estimated 1.5 million Koreans were pressed into service, forced to work in factories and as “comfort women” to Japan. When the atomic bombs were dropped in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the atomic bombs didn't discriminate; 60,000 and 40,000 Koreans were killed or injured in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. After the end of World War II, about 35,000 Korean survivors from the atomic bombs returned to their homeland, and years later the carnage of the Korean War. 

For the first time in 78 years, a delegation of Korean atomic bomb survivors (Hibakusha) are visiting the United States, telling their stories and journeying to the United Nations' Second Meeting of State Parties (2MSP) on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Their message is simple: Acknowledge and Apologize to the Korean victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and abolish nuclear weapons. 

We, the undersigned people and organizations, call on the Biden Administration to issue a formal acknowledgement and apology to the Korean victims of the atomic bombs, whose effects are felt for generations in the form of higher rates of cancers, generational trauma, and degenerative disease. During World War II, our stated enemy was Imperial Japan, and yet forcibly indentured Koreans were victims of the same treatment. The use of nuclear weapons on civillians is unacceptable, immoral, and must be acknowledged.