In the early 1970s, a Korean Christian women’s organisation—the Korea Church Women United (KCWU)—initiated support activities for Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombings in Japan, whose redress movements had been significantly hindered by the unresolved colonial relations between Korea and Japan. The KCWU’s support activities included arranging medical assistance, lobbying the Japanese government to provide the survivors with relief and compensation, conducting investigations into the survivors’ history and current living conditions, and providing financial and social support, particularly for female survivors and their children. This chapter discusses several characteristics of their activities. First, the KCWU was one of the first organisations that tackled with the issue of Korean atomic-bomb victims, and associated it with other problems such as anti-nuclear, environmental, and anti-pollution issues. Second, their focus on long-abandoned atomic-bomb victims, and particularly female victims and their families, likely reflects the influence of ecumenism and Feminist Theology on some of its leading members. Finally, their activities constituted an attempt to resolve the residual colonial relations between Korea and Japan.

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The Intersection of Ecumenism, Feminism, and Decolonisation: The Case of Korean Christian Women’s Work for Compatriot Atomic-Bomb Victims

  • Yuko Takahashi

摘要

In the early 1970s, a Korean Christian women’s organisation—the Korea Church Women United (KCWU)—initiated support activities for Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombings in Japan, whose redress movements had been significantly hindered by the unresolved colonial relations between Korea and Japan. The KCWU’s support activities included arranging medical assistance, lobbying the Japanese government to provide the survivors with relief and compensation, conducting investigations into the survivors’ history and current living conditions, and providing financial and social support, particularly for female survivors and their children. This chapter discusses several characteristics of their activities. First, the KCWU was one of the first organisations that tackled with the issue of Korean atomic-bomb victims, and associated it with other problems such as anti-nuclear, environmental, and anti-pollution issues. Second, their focus on long-abandoned atomic-bomb victims, and particularly female victims and their families, likely reflects the influence of ecumenism and Feminist Theology on some of its leading members. Finally, their activities constituted an attempt to resolve the residual colonial relations between Korea and Japan.