The Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting has awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese association of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. This group was acknowledged as the Hibakusha for struggling to spread the message of no nuclear weapons in this world and to share its testimony of the havoc resultant from the use of nuclear weapons.
BREAKING NEWS
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 11, 2024
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
Nihon Hidankyo was founded in 1956; it is the biggest and most official atomic bomb survivor organisation in Japan. Its mission has been to educate global on the suffering that nuclear weapons bring to humanitarian. The Hibakusha have played a distinctive role for formation of the international nuclear ‘taboo’ – the moral norm prohibiting the use of the nuclear weapons.
The Nobel Committee acknowledged that Nihon Hidankyo has continued to campaign for nuclear disarmament without any letup, and their testimonies at first-hand of the effects of these weapons are unique. “The Hibakusha assist in putting into words the unworded and helps to focus on the inconceivable,” the Committee said.
This recognition has arrived at a rather auspicious time given that nuclear threats persist in the international system, countries are modernizing their nuclear holdings, and new threats are also manifesting. The Committee stressed the issue of preserving the nuclear taboo as tensions all over the world are escalating.
This coming year will people observe the 80th anniversary of the attacks that have taken about 120 000 of residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the effects of which are experienced today by survivors. From the testimonies of the Hibakusha, mechanics of nuclear disarmament have been told, appeals made, and continued lobbying for disarmament at the UN.
