Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, have paid their respects at a memorial to the tens of thousands of Korean victims of the atomic bombing, in a further sign of improving ties between the north-east Asian neighbours.
The pair, accompanied by their wives, laid bouquets of white flowers before lowering their heads at the memorial in the city’s peace park on Sunday on the sidelines of the G7 summit, where Yoon is one of several non-member leaders taking part in “outreach” sessions.
The joint visit – the first of its kind – is being seen as further evidence of the conservative leaders’ determination to look beyond longstanding sources of friction stemming from Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Previous administrations in Tokyo and Seoul have clashed over Japan’s lack of remorse over its wartime exploitation of forced Korean labour and the sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of Korean girls and women who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothels. The countries also have competing claims to the Takeshima-Dokdo islands, which are administered by South Korea.
Japan’s government insists that all compensation claims were settled when the countries normalised diplomatic ties in 1965, but their shared wartime legacy has continued to sour relations almost eight decades since the end of the Pacific conflict.
Ties have thawed under Yoon and Kishida amid US pressure on the countries – home to tens of thousands of American troops – to cooperate on the nuclear threat posed by North Korea and other regional security challenges.
During a visit to South Korea this month, Kishida said his “heart aches” for the “terrible suffering and grief” endured by Koreans during Japanese colonial rule – a comment Yoon said had “touched the heart of South Koreans”.
In March, Yoon became the first South Korean leader to visit Japan in more than a decade after he announced the launch of a government-backed fund to support victims of forced labour who had sought compensation from Japanese companies – a move that has been criticised by survivors and their families.
Yoon praised Kishida for his “sincere determination” to improve ties at the start of their talks in Hiroshima on Sunday – the third time they have met in two months.
“This will be remembered as a courageous action by prime minister Kishida that paves the way for a peaceful future while expressing grief for the Korean victims of the atomic bombing,” Yoon said after the memorial visit.
He said he hoped Seoul and Tokyo would continue to cooperate on bilateral and global issues “based on our deep relationship of trust”.
Kishida said the visit to the Korean A-bomb memorial was “extremely important for Japan-South Korea relations and for us to pray for world peace”.
An estimated 40,000 ethnic Korean residents are believed to have died after the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima – then an important military hub – on 6 August 1945 and, three days later, on the city of Nagasaki, although no official figures exist.
Kishida was due to accompany Yoon and other guest-nation leaders to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and cenotaph on Sunday, two days after G7 leaders laid wreaths in honour of the hundreds of thousands of people whose deaths have been attributed to the atomic bombing 78 years ago.
