Japan’s Hiroshima bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo receives Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo
The Nihon Hidankyo group aims to energise nuclear disarmament efforts with their powerful testimonies amid rising concerns
Members of Nihon Hidankyo, Japan’s leading group of atomic bomb survivors, received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Tuesday, with the organisation hoping the achievement will energise the movement for nuclear abolition as heightening geopolitical tensions have created concerns the weapons may be used again.
The group, also known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, was chosen for the award on October 11 “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,” according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Terumi Tanaka, the 92-year-old co-chair of the organisation, is slated to make a speech at the ceremony, with fellow representatives of the group, Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82, and Shigemitsu Tanaka, 84, joining him on stage.
Among the delegation of 30 people, including 17 hibakusha who are survivors of the 1945 US atomic bombings of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Tanaka is the oldest while the youngest is Mitsuhiro Hayashida, the 32-year-old grandson of a hibakusha. The group also includes representatives of survivor groups from South Korea and Brazil.
It is the second time a Japanese person or organisation has won the Nobel Peace Prize. The first was in 1974 when the award went to former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, who introduced Japan’s three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory.
The win comes as the Nobel Committee highlighted its concern that there is increasing proliferation and even acceptance that nuclear weapons could be used again, with Russia threatening to strike Ukraine with them and a member of the Israeli government last year suggesting they could be launched against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
