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. The Nobel Peace Prize was on October 11 awarded to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha. (Photo by STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf 3:36 PM – Thursday, October 10, 2024
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for their activism and humanitarian work in warning and educating the world on the catastrophic aftermath of nuclear weapons.
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Nihon Hidankyo was created in 1956 by survivors of the atomic bomb attacks.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, stated that the committee “wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.”
The award was presented ahead of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in August 1945, which killed 140,000 and forced Japan to surrender, ultimately ending World War Two.
“This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is 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,” the committee stated.
BREAKING NEWS The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2024 #NobelPeacePrize to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the peace prize for its… pic.twitter.com/YVXwnwVBQO
“In response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, a global movement arose whose members have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons,” the committee continued. “Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatizing the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as ‘the nuclear taboo.’”
However, the committee also expressed their concern with established nuclear countries “modernizing and upgrading,” their nuclear weapons supply, while developing countries are also finding ways to develop and acquire a nuclear arsenal.
Additionally, the announcement comes on the heels of Russia’s ongoing threats towards the U.S. and the West. Putin recently voiced consideration in using nuclear weapons if the West ever decides to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles.
“At this moment in human history, it is worth reminding ourselves what nuclear weapons are: the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen,” the committee added.
Shigeaki Mori, a member of the activist group, was only eight years old when he experienced the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima. Mori was greeted by former President Barack Obama in 2016 during his visit to the memorial site.
During Obama’s visit, he mentioned the need for a “shared responsibility to look directly in the eye of history,” and he praised Mori’s activist work. However the former president avoided any direct apology from the U.S., which some Japanese citizens feel is long overdue.
“It is time for world leaders to be as clear-eyed as the hibakusha, and see nuclear weapons for what they are: devices of death that offer no safety, protection, or security,” added U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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