Hiroshima, Nagasaki bombings called 'divine punishment' by South Korean daily
Anger in Tokyo after labelling of attacks on Hiroshima, Nagasaki as 'divine punishment'
A small group of Japanese right-wingers yesterday staged a protest against a South Korean daily that said the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were "divine punishment".
Some 40 protesters carrying Japanese flags gathered outside a building where the Tokyo bureau of the Joongang Ilbo is located.
Last week, an editorial in the daily's Korean and English versions said the 1945 nuclear bombs dropped by US planes, which together killed more than 200,000 people, were justified.
"The Joongang Ilbo, shame on you!" the right-wingers yelled in chorus. "We will never forgive your anti-Japanese remarks. Go back to the Korean peninsula!"
The signed editorial said the carpet-bombing of the German city of Dresden and the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were acts of "divine punishment and human retaliation".