Setsuko Thurlow, one of the Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors and winners of the award.
Credit: X: Ralf Schlesener@Nobel Prize
Nihon Hidankyo, a group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, has won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
The group of survivors of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been awarded the impressive accolade for their efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. With the 80th anniversary next year, Japan remains the only country to be hit by atomic weapons. Survivors, known as “hibakusha” have been long recognised for their efforts in the “prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, including the signing of an international agreement for a total ban.”
The Nobel Committee said that testimonies by the survivors had “helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories , creating educational campaigns, based on their own experience and issue urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons.”
Nobel Peace Prize symbolises peace in troubling times of nuclear threat
Nihon Hidankyo’s co-chair, Toshuki Mimaki told a press conference that the Nobel Peace prize “will be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons and everlasting peace can be achieved.”
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 resulted in over 200,000 deaths and in the years that followed, many survivors faced other side effects from radiation including leukaemia and cancer. The Nobel Committee said it wanted to “honour all atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who despite physical suffering and painful memories have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.”
There have of course been other examples of antinuclear war campaigns being recognised by the Nobel Committee. In 2017, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was awarded the Peace Prize, and in 1995, Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs were presented with the award for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”
Nuclear war continues to be a concern 80 years on
The stain left on Japan’s history, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referred to on her X account as “the spectre of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” is very much still present. She added: “(This) makes the advocacy of Nihon Hidankyo invaluable. This Nobel Peace Prize sends a powerful message. We have the duty to remember. And an even greater duty to protect the next generations from the horrors of nuclear war.”
Presented on Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize is in the foreground of a global scene devastated by current conflicts, notably in the Middle East and Ukraine. It seems fitting that this year’s prize so perfectly responds to the words of Alfred Nobel who stipulated that those elected be honoured on account of “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
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