As we sat in the Hapcheon Peace House our first morning, eating a traditional Korean breakfast diligently prepared by Han Jeong-san, president of 2nd generation A-Bomb Victims association, we shared a table with a local Buddhist monk. While he didn't speak much English, he looked at us and said "Demon Hunters, you are demon hunters".
At first I thought this strange, but throughout the day I realized just how fitting of a title this was. Those that work against nuclear weapons are very much trying to slay demons. It is particularly personal for those impacted by their use and development.
When I arrived in Seoul I knew very little about the international activists I would be staying with. To be honest, I knew very little about the activities in general, and had decided to jump in feet first with scarce details and perhaps a stale invitation, but was welcomed all the same.
On our first day I learned we were traveling with Benetick Kabua Maddison, a venerated voice in the Marshallese community and Executive Director of the Marshallese Education Initiative out of Springdale Arkansas. I would quickly learn that I was in the company of many more Demon Hunters.
This first full day in Hapcheon on August 5th was to be spent at the Hapcheon Anti-Nuclear and Peace Festival, the 13th annual event held at the center of South Korean Hibakusha-dom. The event featured musical performances and a powerful "Requim" dance to honor the Korean A-bomb victims, and a full auditorium with students, activists, Korean A-bomb victims, media, and a handful of international guests like myself. But the mainstay of this event was the international nuclear-impacted activist testimonies, a departure from previous years.
Lee Nam-Jae, the director of the Hapcheon Peace House welcomed the conference, and was followed by some academic speakers. Professor Hee sook-Kang discussed her studies on the 2nd generation A-Bomb Victims, like Han Jeong-san, and made a strong case that they should recieve compensation the same as first generation victims, as they are between 3.4 and 89 times more likely to develop diseases and birth defects than the general population. Lee Eun Jeong of Yeungnam University talked about the "Medicalization of suffering", i.e., reducing the suffering of A-bomb victims to medical treatment, and the need for a more holistic approach to care and compensation.
Benetick Kabua Maddison, now on his second trip to Hapcheon, spoke soberly on the effects of US nuclear weapons on the Marshallese community, 2/3rds of whom now live outside the islands in places like Springdale Arkansas and around Washington state. A calm and practiced speaker, he clearly laid out the impacts of nuclear colonialism on his people, and called for solidarity among all nuclear-impacted people across the nuclear supply-chain. He also spoke of distrust and broken promises made to his community by some in the nuclear arms control field, and how that drove him to develop protocols for nuclear frontline communities under the Nuclear Truth Project.
Teatuahere Teiti-Gierlach spoke next. Her testimony was raw and powerful. A descendant of Maho'nui or French Polynesia, she described how French nuclear testing and colonialism intertwined to displace and devastate her community. French nuclear testing in the Pacific outpaced even US testing, and contaminated marine foods that are critical to the traditional diets of the Maho'nui. Teatuahere shared the painful experience of losing her grandfather to esophageal cancer, which is closely linked to the consumption of radioactive foods. She spoke of how militarism impacts her current home in Hawaii, how nuclear war continues to impact her own body, and how righteous anger will carry us forward in our struggle for collective freedom.
Isaiha Mombilo, the founder of the Congolese Civil Society of South Africa and the Missing Link of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, has dedicated much of his life to educating the public and discerning the truth about the Shinkolobwe Uranium Mine in the Congo, where the majority of the Manhattan Project's Uranium was extracted under brutal conditions. Shinkolobwe is described as a sort of freak of nature, where the uranium ran so pure that even the waste rock contained a higher percentage of uranium than most North American mines. He shook at the outrage of the United States’ attempts to conceal the truth with claims of sourcing the uranium for its weapons from Bear Lake, Canada. Under Belgian colonial rule and US directives, Congolese people were forced to mine uranium with their bare hands. It’s unknown just how many people were killed this way. Isaiha says “the suffering of his people are responsible for the glory of America”. To this day, Congolese people fear to utter the word “Shinkolobwe”. Isaiha intends to uncover the truth.
Aigerim Seitenova is the founder of the Qazaq Nuclear Frontline Coalition. Her family and community were greatly impacted by the over 400 nuclear tests conducted at Semi-Pellatinsk in Kazahkstan by the Soviet Union. Aigerim produced a documentary titled Jara: Radioactive Patriarchy: Women of Qazaqstan. “Jara” means “wound” in the Qazaq language. The film recounts the stories of Qazaq women impacted by nuclear explosions. There is an estimated 1.5 million downwinders of the Soviet explosions in Kazakhstan. Aigerim recounted with pride how the Qazaq movements, culminated by the Nevada-Pellatinsk international solidarity movement, put an end to nuclear testing in Kazahkstan. She also told of how a hundred thousand ethnic Koreans were deported to the cold steppes of Kazahkstan by the Stalin regime, and how many were saved from starvation by the solidarity of the Qazaq people. While they were struggling themselves with famine, they shared what little they had.
Leona Morgan came to the conference from New Mexico. A Dine woman of the Navajo Nation, she is an anti-uranium organizer with the group Haul No. Leona took aim at nuclear energy as well as nuclear weapons, as both feed the hunger for the uranium mines that have plagued her community. Leona put up an alarming map during her presentation, which featured the over four thousand abandoned uranium mines in the United States. The map showed a sea of red dots in the American Southwest, particularly concentrated in the Navajo reservation. She showed another striking visual of the uranium fuel chain, and where nuclear waste is produced from mining to power to nuclear weapons, seven outflows in particular, with no plan for the multi-thousand year stewardship of this waste. There is currently no plan to clean up the abandoned uranium mines of the Navajo Reservation. She is working to stop the transportation of more uranium through her homelands.
Sachie Yoshizaki, an 85 year old Japanese Hibakusha was the last to speak. While her testimony was translated only from Japanese to Korean, I understood some of the scenes she was depicting. Hellfire, burning city and people alike. The cries of "Mizu" as people pleaded for water, as their burns depleted their bodies of fluid. And the blood-curse of radiation, marking nearly all Hibakusha and their descendants with poor health and high rates of cancer. The devilry that is nuclear weapons are still stockpiled around the world, waiting to be unleashed again. The United States government is building more. And yet, with people like Benetick, Teatuahere, Isaiha, Aigerim, and Leona on our side, we may yet have a chance to stop it.