The Norwegian Nobel Committee nominated 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".
Around 140,000 people died when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and 74,000 others in Nagasaki three days later.
The bombings, the only times nuclear weapons have been used in history, brought to an end World War II and with it imperial Japan's brutal rampage across Asia.
But survivors of the initial blasts, known as "hibakusha", also suffered from radiation sickness and longer-term effects including elevated risks of cancer.
Nihon Hidankyo was formed in 1956, tasked with telling the stories of the hibakusha and pressing for a world without nuclear weapons.
Co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki broke down in tears at a press conference after the award was announced, saying "never did I dream this could happen".
"It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists," Mimaki told reporters.
"For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won't end there. Politicians should know these things."
He added that members of the group -- which was founded in 1956 -- were the "average age of 85".
"I hope that the second-generation (of atomic bomb survivors) and the general public participate in peace activities, for peace without nuclear weapons," he said.
The mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, denounced nuclear weapons as an "absolute evil".
"Hibakusha (survivors) are fast ageing and there are fewer and fewer people able to testify to the meaninglessness of possessing atomic bombs and their absolute evil," he told reporters Friday.
"People in coming generations must know that what happened is not just a tragedy for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but one that concerns all humanity that must not be repeated."
- 'Tragedy of Japan' -
"The fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to this organisation, which has spent many years working toward the abolition of nuclear weapons, is extremely meaningful," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said.
Ordinary Japanese born after 1945 welcomed the news of the award.
"I think it is very important for such people to convey to the world the tragedy of Japan in the form of the Nobel Peace Prize," consultant Masaki Ozawa, 49, told AFP in Tokyo.
"I think it is very important for us Japanese to pass on to the next generation the fact that there is nothing more cruel than war," he said.
Fellow Tokyo resident Keika Ban, 80, called the prize a "happy moment".
"As the only country to have experienced the atomic bombings, the best thing for Japan would be for atomic weapons to disappear from the world," he said.
"But now, with the situation in Ukraine and North Korea, the atomic bomb is being used as an intimidation method."
- Gaza -
Mimaki from Nihon Hidankyo also compared the situation of children in Gaza to what Japan faced at the end of World War II.
Palestinian militant group Hamas sparked the Gaza war by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,206 people, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel launched a massive retaliation campaign, and according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, the Palestinian territory's deadliest-ever war has killed more than 42,000 people so far, a majority civilians.
"In Gaza, bleeding children are being held (by their parents). It's like in Japan 80 years ago," Mimaki said.
Children in Japan "lost their fathers in the war and their mothers in the atomic bomb. They became orphans", he said.
Nagasaki's mayor, Shiro Suzuki, did not invite Israel's ambassador to Japan to this year's annual ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing.
He insisted that the decision was "not political" but the ambassadors of the United States and Britain boycotted the event in protest.
On Friday Suzuki welcomed the Nobel award but said it was "overdue", putting the decision down to the "extremely tumultuous" current global situation.
Japanese atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo wins Nobel Peace Prize
Oslo (AFP) Oct 11, 2024 -
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Japan's Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors pushing for a nuclear weapons ban, as states like Russia threaten to use them.
The group, also known as Hibakusha and founded in 1956, received the honour "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," said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
Nihon Hidankyo's co-head expressed surprise.
"Never did I dream this could happen," Toshiyuki Mimaki told reporters in Tokyo with tears in his eyes.
"It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace," he said.
But "if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won't end there," he warned. "Politicians should know these things."
The Nobel committee expressed alarm that the international "nuclear taboo" that developed in response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945 was "under pressure".
"This year's prize is a prize that focuses on the necessity of upholding this nuclear taboo. And we all have a responsibility, particularly the nuclear powers," Frydnes told reporters.
Moscow has repeatedly brandished the nuclear threat in a bid to dissuade the West from supporting Ukraine, which has been fending off Russia's invasion since February 2022.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week his country would use nuclear weapons "without hesitation" if attacked by South Korea and ally the United States.
And in the Middle East, where tensions have escalated dramatically, Israel, the region's only nuclear-armed state, has vowed a "deadly, precise and surprising" response to Iran's direct strike on Israeli territory on October 1.
Tehran has significantly ramped up its nuclear programme and now has enough material to build more than three atomic bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"A nuclear war could destroy our civilisation," Frydnes warned.
- 'Like hell on Earth' -
Following Friday's announcement, UN chief Antonio Guterres called on world leaders to eliminate all nuclear weapons, which he called "devices of death".
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the award for Nihon Hidankyo was "extremely meaningful", while the mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, denounced nuclear weapons as an "absolute evil".
The Nobel committee noted that next year will mark 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 214,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, prompting Japan's surrender and the end of World War II.
Setsuko Thurlow, a 92-year-old member of Nihon Hidankyo, was 13 years old when she was rescued from the ruins of Hiroshima.
When the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, Thurlow accepted the award on its behalf together with ICAN head Beatrice Fihn.
Hiroshima "was like hell on Earth," she told AFP at the time, describing survivors looking like "a procession of ghosts", burned flesh hanging from their bones and some "carrying their eyeballs".
Frydnes told AFP Friday's Nobel was "a wake-up call to the world, but it's also to recognise how individuals can stand up and create hope by telling their stories."
Six hours after Friday's announcement, no leader of a nuclear power had publicly reacted to the choice of Nobel laureate.
There are currently nine nuclear-armed states: the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and likely Israel.
A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in June noted that with rising geopolitical tensions in the world, nuclear powers were modernising their arsenals.
Compared to 1945, "today's nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power. They can kill millions and would impact the climate catastrophically," the Nobel committee said.
In February 2023, Russia announced it was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining arms control treaty between the world's two main nuclear powers, Russia and the United States.
- More operational warheads -
In January, there were 12,121 nuclear warheads worldwide, SIPRI said.
"While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads," SIPRI director Dan Smith said.
The Nobel Peace Prize has previously honoured disarmament efforts, including in 1985 to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and in 2005 to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director Mohamed ElBaradei.
The Nobel Prizes consist of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million prize sum.
Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
