Nobel Peace Prize-winning Nihon Hidankyo group calls for global nuclear disarmament

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Nihon Hidankyo, an organization campaigning against nuclear weapons, has called for global nuclear disarmament, nearly 80 years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Three survivors of the US atomic bombings of Japan on Tuesday accepted the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Nihon Hidankyo, a nation-wide Japanese group which represents survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Imagine this: there are 4,000 nuclear warheads that could be launched immediately. This means that the damage that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be multiplied by hundreds or even thousands,” said Terumi Tanaka, a 92-year-old Japanese man who survived the American atomic bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945.

Tanaka, who co-chairs Nihon Hidankyo, demanded “action from governments to achieve” a nuclear-free world.

“I am infinitely saddened and angered that the 'nuclear taboo' threatens to be broken,” he told dignitaries at Oslo City Hall during his Nobel Prize speech

“Let us all strive together to ensure that humanity is not destroyed by nuclear weapons, and to create a human society where there are no nuclear weapons and no war,” Tanaka stressed.

Founded in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo has been advocating for a total ban on nuclear weapons, which have significantly increased in both power and number since the US atomic bombing of the two ill-fated Japanese cities in the final year of World War II.

“The nuclear superpower Russia threatens to use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine and a cabinet member of Israel, in the midst of its unrelenting attacks on Gaza in Palestine, even spoke of the possible use of nuclear arms,” Tanaka further said through a translator.

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While introducing the laureates, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chair, said that it is crucial to heed their testimony as nuclear threats around the world continue to increase.

“None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons ... appear interested in nuclear disarmament and arms control at present. On the contrary, they are modernizing and building up their nuclear arsenals,” he warned.

The US bombings of the Japanese cities on August 6 and 9, 1945, resulted in the deaths of 214,000 people.

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