Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Japanese organisation against nuclear weapons

As nuclear powers modernise their arsenals and threaten their use in various global conflicts, Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was on Friday, 11 October, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 for its efforts to rid the world of these weapons of mass destruction.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is tasked with deciding the recipient, announced that it has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo ‘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’.

It noted that in response to the atomic bomb attacks on these Japanese cities in August 1945, leaving 1,200,000 dead in the immediate moment and a similar number in the wake of the spreading radiation, a global movement arose whose members have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons.

Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as 'the nuclear taboo' and the 'testimony of the Hibakusha — the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — is unique in this larger context', the Nobel Committee said.

While the fates of those who survived the infernos in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were long concealed and neglected, the Committee said that in 1956, local Hibakusha associations — along with victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific — formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations. In Japanese, the name was shortened to Nihon Hidankyo, and it would become the largest and most influential Hibakusha organisation.

In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.

The Committee added that Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of witness accounts, issued resolutions and public appeals, and sent annual delegations to the United Nations and a variety of peace conferences to remind the world of the pressing need for nuclear disarmament.

In the citation, the committee said that these 'historical witnesses have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons'.

The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons, the Committee said.

It continued: 'One day, the Hibakusha will no longer be among us as witnesses to history. But with a strong culture of remembrance and continued commitment, new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses. They are inspiring and educating people around the world. In this way, they are helping to maintain the nuclear taboo — a precondition of a peaceful future for humanity.'

The Norwegian Nobel Committee also underlined 'one encouraging fact': that no nuclear weapon has been used in war in nearly 80 years, and cited the 'extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the Hibakusha' as major contributions to the 'the establishment of the nuclear taboo'.

However, it also termed 'alarming' the fact that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure, as nuclear powers modernise and upgrade their arsenals, new countries appear to be preparing to acquire nuclear weapons, and threats are being made to use nuclear weapons in ongoing warfare.

'Next year will mark 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 120,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

'A comparable number died of burn and radiation injuries in the months and years that followed.

'Today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power. They can kill millions and would impact the climate catastrophically. A nuclear war could destroy our civilisation," the Nobel Committee warned.