Oral history interview with Keizaburo Toyonaga, 2013 July 3.

Keizaburo Toyonaga, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing born in 1936, talks about how he got involved in helping Korean hibakusha in their efforts to get support from the Japanese government. He speaks about his time in school after the war ended, when he had to go to school with many Korean students, and he became friends with some of them and began to understand the discrimination and poverty they were subjected to. He continued to witness this discrimination later when he became a high school teacher. He talks about working with South Korean groups and the South Korean government to help address the issue of discrimination against Zainichi Koreans. He mentions that many Japanese don't know that there were non-Japanese hibakusha and that the governments of both countries ignored their existence. He describes a trip he took to South Korea to meet hibakusha there. He then talks about his personal experiences of the day of the bombing. He was on his way to see a doctor and was about 9 kilometers from ground zero, so he wasn't directly injured. However, he says he could see Roosevelt and Churchill's faces in the mushroom cloud, which shows how strong the anti-American education was at that time. He talks about how he became a teacher after the war and how he didn't see himself as a hibakusha until much later in life. He discusses the difficulties involved for overseas hibakusha when trying to get medical treatment in Japan. He acknowledges that his understanding of Korean culture has deepened through his involvement in activities related to Korean hibakusha, but he also notes that as a Japanese person, he has a strong sense of being among the perpetrators of harm and feels apologetic towards Korean victims. However, he realizes that it is important to engage in dialogue on an equal level to avoid causing misunderstandings and to support activism. He talks about his involvement with the "Hiroshima o Kataru Kai."

Recorded 2013 July 3