Members of Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors, that won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, attend a press conference on October 12, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Leaders of the group of atomic bomb survivors awarded the Nobel Peace Prize warned on Saturday (October 12, 2024) that the risk of nuclear war was rising, renewing their call to abolish nuclear weapons.

“The international situation is getting progressively worse, and now wars are being waged as countries threaten the use of nuclear weapons,” said Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the 1945 U.S. bombing of Nagasaki and co-head of the Nihon Hidankyo group.

“I fear that we as humankind are on the path to self-destruction. The only way to stop that is to abolish nuclear,” he said.

In awarding the survivors, the Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted the devastation of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese group’s decades-long work to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The group’s endeavours have critical importance in the world today, the committee said. It did not specify any countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled last month that Moscow would consider responding with nuclear weapons if the U.S. and its allies allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range Western missiles.

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.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, president of Nihon Hidankyo. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

The head of Japan’s Nihon Hidankyo said on Friday (September 11, 2024) that the group’s win of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize would give a major boost to its efforts to demonstrate that the abolition of nuclear weapons was possible.

“It would be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved,” Nihon Hidankyo head Toshiyuki Mimaki told a news conference in Hiroshima, site of the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bombing during World War Two.

ALSO READ: The Nobel Prize 2024 – An interactive guide

“Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished,” he said.

He further expressed his surprise at being given the award for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

“Never did I dream this could happen,” Mr. Mimaki said.

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.