Korea under Japanese rule

In a recent interview with the Asahi Shimbun, Takashi Hiraoka, ninety-eight, shared his views of Japan as seen through the eyes of someone who knows the years before, during, and after the war.

Hiraoka was an expat in Japanese Korea when the war ended and became a Hiroshima-based journalist before going on to serve as mayor of the city during his life of nearly a century.

The interview was conducted ahead of the eighty-first anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city.

Excerpts of the interview follow.

In a recent interview with the Asahi Shimbun, Takashi Hiraoka, ninety-eight, shared his views of Japan as seen through the eyes of someone who knows the years before, during and after the war.

Hiraoka was an expat in Japanese Korea when the war ended and became a Hiroshima-based journalist before going on to serve as mayor of the city during his life of nearly a century.

The interview was conducted ahead of the eighty-first anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city.

Excerpts of the interview follow.

In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Takashi Hiraoka, 98, shared his views of Japan as seen through the eyes of someone who knows the years before, during and after the war.

Hiraoka was an expat in Japanese Korea when the war ended and became a Hiroshima-based journalist before going on to serve as mayor of the city during his life of nearly a century.

The interview was conducted ahead of the 81st anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city.

Excerpts of the interview follow.