``Unless the Japanese government promises us compensation, the war for us will never end,'' said 70-year-old Oum Boon-Yun, whose bone marrow was damaged by the atom radiation. ``I will continue fighting until the last minute of my life,'' she told AFP at a Hiroshima hospital, not far from where `Little Boy' exploded 567 meters above the ground.

An estimated 20,000 Koreans were killed by the bomb, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the toll. Other foreign victims included Asian students as well as British and Dutch prisoners of war.

The Korean survivors, most of whom were taken to Japan as forced labourers during its 1910-1945 colonial rule over Korea, have won no individual compensation from Tokyo.

``I don't think I can die peacefully,'' Oum, who represents one of the Korean survivors' groups here told AFP in the run-up to the tragicanniversary on Friday. ``After my death, I may become a ghost and appear to bring my grudge against Japan. I am not joking,'' he said.

Foreign sufferers receive medical support but only within Japan. Korean and other foreign victims have filed lawsuits demanding that the government provide them with the same treatment while they are overseas.

``It is ridiculous that support is invalid once foreign sufferers leave Japan for their home countries,'' said Kang Moon-Hee, a senior official of another support group for Korean victims in Hiroshima.

``We were forced to be here, forced to work, hit by the bomb, and later thrown away like trash,'' the 81-year-old sufferer said, adding, ``Did we do anything wrong? Why do we have to suffer in silence?''

``My mission is to make clear Japan's responsibility for the discrimination and tell my experience to a lot of people,'' he said. ``My post-war period isn't finished yet''.

The western Japanese city holds its annual ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace MemorialPark. Flowers and paper cranes already adorn a black stone monument to Korean victims in the park, inscribed with the message: ``We pray for the solace of those lost souls longing for their homeland but killed on foreign soil''.

``On August 6, everybody chants peace,'' said Oum. ``But we should not make the thought short-lived like fireworks. We need real peace with no discrimination''.

Oum, who was forced to work at a military factory, was burned when `Little Boy' was released by the US B-29 bomber Enola Gay. ``At the factory, I felt a flash from behind and I was blown into the air and lost consciousness,'' she said.

``When I was rescued, white bones were jutting out of my elbow and feet,'' she said. ``I kept cutting my rotten flesh, which was infested with maggots. I cannot find any word to describe the pain and terror. I kept asking why I had to be involved in something caused by Japan,'' she added.

-- Agence France Presse