The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, Nobel Peace Prize 2024, made up of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, campaigns for the elimination of nuclear weapons in the world and leads prevention of the damage they can cause.
“For his efforts towards a world without nuclear weapons.” The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, which brings together survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this Friday, October 11 in Oslo. The planet is preparing to commemorate next year the 80th anniversary of these first two nuclear bombings in history which caused a total of some 214,000 deaths and precipitated the capitulation of Japan as well as the end of the Second World War.
The Nihon Hidankyo organization was founded in 1956 by local associations of Hibakusha – the name given to the irradiated survivors of these bombings – and victims of nuclear tests in the Pacific. It is the only national organization of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, it is stated on its website.
Prevention of nuclear war and elimination of nuclear weapons
Since then, Nihon Hidankyo has been fighting for the elimination of nuclear weapons in the world, while working on prevention, and for compensation for the damage caused by the atomic bomb.
Both in Japan and around the world, Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of testimonies, told the stories of the Hibakusha, the real damage and the after-effects of the bomb. Every year, she sent delegations to the United Nations and various peace conferences to remind the world of “the urgent need for nuclear disarmament”, notes the Nobel Committee in a press release.
Nihon Hidankyo organized “dozens of petitions each year to urge the Japanese government” to inform globally “of the damage caused by the A-bombing” and acknowledge its responsibility for the war.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor all those survivors “who, despite their physical suffering and painful memories, chose to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and commitment to peace.”
“Nuclear weapons must never be used again”
The members of the organization are all Hibakusha. About 174,000 of them still lived in Japan in 2016, according to its data, and several thousand live in Korea or other parts of the world.
“For nearly ten years after the bombing, the Hibakusha received no assistance from the American occupying forces,” it says on the site. The Americans also “strictly prohibited the population from writing or speaking about the bombing, the damage”, and the more than 210,000 deaths “even after the country regained its sovereignty in 1952”.
“The Hibakusha were deprived of their health by the radiation from the bombs, disadvantaged in society and victims of social discrimination,” it added.
Nihon Hidankyo is thus distinguished “for his efforts in favor of a world without nuclear weapons and for having demonstrated, through testimonies, that nuclear weapons must never be used again”, declared the president of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes.
The price “emphasizes the need to maintain the nuclear taboo,” he stressed. “And we all have a responsibility (to do so), especially the nuclear powers.” Powers which today number 9: the United States, Russia, France, Great Britain, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and very probably Israel. A list that tends to grow rather than shrink.
“I never imagined that this could happen,” reacted, with tears in his eyes, the co-president of the group, Toshiyuki Mimaki, to journalists in Japan.
“It has been said that thanks to nuclear weapons, peace will be maintained throughout the world. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists. And for example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, and Israel against Gaza, it will not stop there. Political leaders must be aware of this,” he said.
Before adding: “In Gaza, bleeding children are detained. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago.”
“A nuclear war could destroy our civilization”
The choice to decorate this organization comes as Moscow has, on several occasions, raised the nuclear threat to dissuade the West from providing military aid to Ukraine, which has been trying for two and a half years to repel the Russian invasion. triggered in February 2022.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin changed Russia’s doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons, saying he could use them in the event of a “massive launch” of air attacks against his country.
The Nobel Committee also emphasizes that today “a nuclear war could destroy our civilization”. Nuclear weapons “can kill millions of people and would have catastrophic consequences for the climate.”
In the past, the Nobel Peace Prize has repeatedly rewarded efforts to ban these weapons of mass destruction.
In 1975, it was the Soviet dissident Andreï Sakharov who was awarded the prize, in 1985 the International Association of Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, in 1995 Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash movement, in 2005 the International Agency for atomic energy and its director Mohamed El-Baradei, and in 2017 the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
