By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 13, 2026

A major tribunal is underway here in Seoul, South Korea, in a huge, packed auditorium on a university campus, with participants, witnesses, and judges from around the world, including the United States and Japan. See http://abombtribunal.org/

This is a people’s tribunal, not a government-run affair. The expertise and legal authorities are unmatched, and the findings will clearly deserve to be acted on when the political will can be found.

Welcoming events happened on Thursday and the first day of the tribunal took place on Friday, with two more days to come.

Survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki testified, a number of them in their 80s. Before they die, one of them remarked, they would like to hear these words from the U.S. government: “The dropping of the atomic bombs was wrong. We are sorry.” These survivors were not Japanese, but Korean.

According to tribunal witness Oh Eun-Jeong, 70,000 Koreans were exposed to radiation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of whom 40,000 died and 30,000 survived. Of the survivors, 20,000 returned to Korea. These were people forced, under Japanese colonialism, to work in Japan during World War II. They were told they were Japanese. Even after the bombings, they were told that all the victims had been Japanese. They also faced fear, prejudice, discrimination, and ongoing physical agony for years to come.

Children and grandchildren of the first-generation victims developed horrible illnesses, though it took decades to identify the cause and to achieve general recognition thereof. “I will offer my body to be dissected to prove the truth,” said second-generation victim Kim Hyung-ryul before he died at 35.

It having been well established that there are victims, those victims tend to ask: “How can there be victims but no perpetrators?” Japan has not apologized for its imperialism and forced labor. The United States has not apologized for the atomic bombings. What victims (and advocates for extending the existence of life on Earth) demand are apologies, reparations, and steps to avoid repetition. Said steps must clearly include the abolition of war to effect the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Attending this conference are first- and second-generation victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and U.S. survivors of hundreds of nuclear explosions in Nevada. Those impacted by all of the nuclear “testing” in the world includes all of us.

In addition to an apology and reparations, we need a renunciation of the lies about the bombings saving lives or otherwise being justifiable. Attorney Park Kyu-hoon pointed out that the U.S. government tried to lie and coverup the results of the bombings immediately after the destruction.

Multiple witnesses on Friday laid out a legal case for the criminality (under the laws of the time) of the dropping of the atomic bombs. They cited the Hague aggreements of 1899 and 1907 and numerous other treaties, and argued that the bombings illegally caused unnecessary suffering, violated “laws of humanity and public conscience,” violated bans on targeting civilian populations (in fact intentionally aimed at the most densely populated areas), violated bans on chemical and/or poisoned weapons, and illegally went beyond what was necessary for legitimate military purposes (whatever those may be).

Of course, the losers of World War II were prosecuted for anything they did as part of a war illegal in its entirety under the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Were this tribunal to apply the same logic to the victors of World War II, the atomic bombings would be illegal as parts of a war rather than as improper parts of a war. One witness late in the day on Friday argued that the Kellogg-Briand Pact and other treaties had made force illegal except as self-defense, as it has been made customary to claim despite the Kellogg-Briand Pact having very carefully not included that loophole.

By the end of this week there should be a judgement reached for us all to send to the U.S. government. That judgement should be livestreamed at 5:10 p.m. Korea Standard Time, Sunday.

Richard Falk opened the tribunal, saying it aimed to “lift the curse of nuclearism from the bent shoulders of humanity.” Marjorie Cohn pointed out how close the United States is to using nuclear weapons again. This 81-year-old history couldn’t be more urgent.

Korean peace activists are very busy planning a big rally for Saturday opposing the use of Korean troops in the Strait of Hormuz. That subservience to Trump suggests how far the Korean government is from demanding truth and justice out of Washington even over matters from 81 years ago.

The people and organizations who have put this tribunal together, on the other hand, have beautifully honored and memorialized victims with dance, song, and readings of their stories, while laying out a powerful legal case for the criminality of one of most immoral actions ever taken.

Toward the end of Day 1 of the Tribunal, former U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, a World BEYOND War Advisory Board Member, spoke passionately and apologized on behalf of the U.S. government. Wright pointed out that after many years of work the U.S. government was finally brought to compensate some of the downwinder victims of its U.S. nuclear explosions — and more work could bring about the same for Koreans.

Following the tribunal, Ann Wright and I will be taking part in an event on Jeju Island.

The post In Korea a Tribunal Is Underway on U.S. Atomic Bombings appeared first on World BEYOND War.

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