2024 Nobel Peace Prize goes to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo.
As a warning to nations possessing nuclear weapons not to use them, the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
Many of the “hibakusha,” or survivors of the only two nuclear bombs ever used in combat, have devoted their lives to the fight for a world free of nuclear weapons.
The group was given the Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which cited its efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world and its use of witness testimony to prove that they must never be used again.
The committee stated, “The hibakusha help us to think the unthinkable, to describe the indescribable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.
” Toshiyuki Mimaki, co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, said, “I can’t believe it’s real,” while holding back tears and pinching his cheek at a press conference in Hiroshima, the site of the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945, during the final days of World War Two.
Being a survivor himself, Mimaki said the honor would significantly advance their attempts to show that nuclear weapons could be eliminated.
“The victory will be a powerful tool to convince the world that nuclear weapons can be eliminated and that enduring peace is possible,” he declared. “There should be an absolute ban on nuclear weapons.
” In the years after the war, hibakusha (those who had visible wounds from radiation burns or developed diseases related to radiation, like leukemia) in Japan were frequently forced to live apart from society and faced discrimination when they tried to get married or find work.
According to data from Japan’s health ministry, as of March of this year, there were 106,825 registered survivors of atomic bombs, with an average age of 85.6 years.
The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Joergen Watne Frydnes, cautioned that nuclear-armed states should not consider deploying atomic weapons without mentioning any particular nations.
“We wanted to highlight the importance of strengthening the nuclear taboo, the international norm, against the use of nuclear weapons in a world ridden (with) conflicts, where nuclear weapons are definitely part of it,” Frydnes told Reuters.
“We find it extremely concerning that the nuclear taboo is being eroded through threats, as well as the global context in which the nuclear powers are modernizing and enhancing their arsenals.”
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