Radiation and rejection

The ‘Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb’ near the Peace Memorial Park. (Right) Bae reflecting on her experiences while visiting a traditional structure holding 1,172 wooden plaques bearing the names of deceased victims – among them her three siblings – behind the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Victim Welfare Centre in South Gyeongsang. — AFP

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 city at the time, her family kept the horror a secret.