Atomic bomb survivors and members of Nihon Hidankyo, a country-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers, including Assistant Secretary General Toshiko Hamanaka, Co-chairperson Terumi Tanaka, Assistant Secretary General Masako Wada, Assistant Secretary General Jiro Hamasumi attend a press conference on the following day of Nihon Hidankyo winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Tokyo, on October 12, 2023
| Photo Credit: Reuters

It has been 79 years since the two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pulverised by two atom bombs, ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’, dropped by the U.S. Army Air Forces. This remains the only direct attacks on civilian population using nuclear weapons and the after-effects are a horrifying reminder of their destructive and long-lasting effects. The victims of the attacks, in which an estimated 1,50,000 to 2,46,000 people were killed immediately or due to radiation effects by the end of 1945, include survivors who went on to be known as the ‘hibakusha’ (bomb-affected people). Today, the combined number of ‘hibakusha’ who are alive is officially 1,06,825, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Their average age is 85.6 years.

By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to Nihon Hidankyo or the Japan Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Sufferers Organizations, a group formed by hibakusha in 1956, the Norwegian Nobel Committee finally recognised the yeoman efforts taken by the group to improve health and provide medical support to the hibakusha and to strive for the abolition of nuclear weapons, emphasised in their slogan, ‘No more hibakusha’.

Pinching his cheek and holding back tears, Hidankyo co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki said in a press conference in Hiroshima that the award would give a major boost to the efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and also said that it was governments that waged wars and not citizens who yearned for peace. Speaking to presspersons, he said, “Please abolish nuclear weapons while we are still alive. That is the wish of 1,14,000 hibakusha”. Hidankyo has been nominated for the Peace Prize quite a few times and clearly their humane emphasis on banning nuclear weapons on virtue of being the sufferers of the use of these had catapulted their cause to international attention.

In the first decade since August 1945, many survivors had to go through ordeals such as unknown sickness, fatal illness and penury. There was little scope for organisation during the U.S. occupation following Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, as the occupying force censored publications that focused on the suffering of the hibakusha. The end of the occupation provided the impetus to organise but the ‘Lucky Dragon 5’ incident — in which a Japanese tuna-fishing vessel got exposed to radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean — and its aftermath acted as a catalyst for the formation of Hidankyo. Public outrage at the incident spurred the anti-bomb/ ban-the-bomb movement leading to Hidankyo.

Two demands

At the very outset, Hidankyo was able to crystallise two fundamental demands — “the elimination of nuclear weapons” and “relief for the hibakusha”. Demands for relief for the hibakusha were directed at the Japanese government, rather than the aggressors, the U.S. because Japanese rights to damages during the war were waived by the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed between Japan and the Allied forces in 1951. Hidankyo also zeroed on the Japanese government for relief as it considered its members’ sufferings to be a consequence of war pursued by the Imperial Japanese state.

The Japanese government’s response was to enact an ‘Atomic Bomb Medical Law’ in 1957, aimed at improving the “hibakusha’s health with state-sponsored check-ups and medical assistance”, but it stopped short of alleviating their health concerns or living conditions. Okinawan and Korean hibakusha were excluded from this assistance. Hidankyo was also part of the progressive organisation called Gensuikyo that led the ban-the-bomb movement, but Cold War politics and differences between right and left-wing sections of the Gensuikyo led to Hidankyo distancing from it in the mid-1960s.

Hidankyo made several trips across the world — including to India as part of the World Social Forum in 2004 — to inform the people about the horror of nuclear weapons and the damage it caused on the hibakusha besides the fact that it was concealed from the public for more than a decade since August 1945.

In the 1970s, Hidankyo also engaged in oppositional politics and agitations that increased solidarity and support for it from the public. Over time in Japan, several laws were passed that were focussed on healthcare for the hibakusha that went beyond treatment for radiation wounds and illnesses, thanks to the activism of Hidankyo. Scholars have averred that the group’s long struggle helped pressure the Japan government “to admit its war responsibility” and helped turn the country’s political culture towards greater democracy and justice. Yet, despite turning public opinion on nuclear weapons and steadily increasing relief for the hibakusha, Hidankyo could not mould the Japanese government’s position on the U.S.’s “nuclear umbrella”, which continues to this day.

The Peace Prize, by highlighting the struggle of the ageing hibakusha, should hopefully provide the impetus for the world to work further on abolishing nuclear weapons and the strategies that foster their presence.

Atomic bomb survivors and members of Nihon Hidankyo, a country-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers, including Assistant Secretary General Toshiko Hamanaka, Co-chairperson Terumi Tanaka, Assistant Secretary General Masako Wada, Assistant Secretary General Jiro Hamasumi attend a press conference on the following day of Nihon Hidankyo winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2024. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a fast-dwindling group of atomic bomb survivors who are facing down the shrinking time they have left to convey the firsthand horror they witnessed 79 years ago.

Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons. The survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as their last chance to get their message out to younger generations.

“We must seriously think about the succession of our messages. We must thoroughly hand over from our generation to the future generations,” Toshiyuki Mimaki, senior member of the Hiroshima branch of Hidankyo, told reporters on Friday (October 11, 2024) night.

“With the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize, we now have a responsibility to get our messages handed down not only in Japan but also across the world.”

The honor rewards members’ grassroots efforts to keep telling their stories — even though that involved recollecting horrendous ordeals during and after the bombings, and facing discrimination and worries about their health from the lasting radiation impact — for the sole purpose of never again let that happen.

Now, with their average age at 85.6, the hibakusha are increasingly frustrated that their fear of a growing nuclear threat and push to eliminate nuclear weapons are not fully understood by younger generations.

The number of prefectural hibakusha groups decreased from 47 to 36. And the Japanese government, under the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection, has refused to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon.

But there is hope, and a youth movement seems to be starting, the Nobel committee noted.

Three high school students accompanied Mimaki at the city hall, stood by him as the prize winner was announced, and promised to keep their activism alive.

“I had goose bumps when I heard the announcement,” said a beaming Wakana Tsukuda. “I have felt discouraged by negative views about nuclear disarmament, but the Nobel Peace Prize made me renew my commitment to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons.”

Another high school student, Natsuki Kai, said, “I will keep up my effort so we can believe that nuclear disarmament is not a dream but a reality.”

In Nagasaki, another group of students celebrated Hidankyo’s win. Yuka Ohara, 17, thanked the survivors’ yearslong effort despite the difficulty. Mr. Ohara said she heard her grandparents, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, repeatedly tell her the importance of peace in daily life. “I want to learn more as I continue my activism.”

In April, a group of people set up a network, Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, connecting younger generations around the country to work with survivors and pursue their effort.

Efforts to document the survivors’ stories and voices have grown in recent years around Japan, including in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo. In some places, young volunteers are working with hibakusha to succeed their personal story telling when they are gone.

The first U.S. atomic bombing killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima. A second atomic attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing an end to its nearly half-century aggression in Asia.

Hidankyo was formed 11 years later in 1956. There was a growing anti-nuclear movement in Japan in response to U.S. hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific that led to a series of radiation exposures by Japanese boats, adding to demands for government support for health problems.

As of March, 106,823 survivors — 6,824 fewer than a year ago, and nearly one-quarter of the total in the 1980s — were certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Many others, including those who say they were victims of the radioactive “black rain” that fell outside the initially designated areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are still without support.

Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Nobel Peace Prize 2024 has been awarded to Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, the Swedish Academy announced on Friday (October 11, 2024).

The Nobel Committee said that Nihon Hidankyo was receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

Nihon Hidankyo is the only nation-wide organization of A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Hibakusha). It has member organizations in all 47 Japanese prefectures, thus representing almost all organized Hibakusha. Hidankyo is cooperating with those organizations in their work for the defense of the living and rights of these people.

One of the main objectives of Hindankyo is prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, including the signing of an international agreement for a total ban and elimination of nuclear weapons.

Last year, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to to Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, who is currently imprisoned. In 2014, India’s Kailash Satyarthi had won the award jointly with Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai.

ALSO READ: The Nobel Prize 2024 – An interactive guide

Earlier this week, the Swedish Academy announced the winners of the 2024 Nobel prizes for Physics, Chemistry and Physiology/Medicine, followed by the Literature award on Thursday (October 10, 2024) which was bagged by the first South Korean winner Han Kang.

The final Economics award will on October 14.

The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($ 1 million) from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to accept their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.