Japanese atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo wins Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organisation of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.

Nihon Hidankyo, an organisation of survivors of the two US atomic bombings, became the first Japanese recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 50 years since the late prime minister Eisaku Sato was honoured in 1974 for his contribution to regional stability and Japan’s signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Tomoyuki Mimaki, the organisation’s Hiroshima branch executive, was standing by at the city hall for the announcement. He cheered and teared up when he received the news. “Is it really true? Unbelievable!” Mimaki screamed, pinching his cheek with his fingers to make sure he was not dreaming.

“I believe the Nobel Peace Prize will give us more power to promote our cause toward achieving a world without nuclear weapons,” said Mimaki, who was exposed to atomic bombing at age 3 in Hiroshima, his father’s hometown, where he evacuated after surviving the US air raid in Tokyo on March 10, 1945.

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.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, 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. 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.

Following Friday’s announcement, UN chief Antonio Guterres called on world leaders to eliminate all nuclear weapons, which he called “devices of death.” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that “the spectre of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still looms over humanity. This makes the advocacy of Nihon Hidankyo invaluable. This Nobel Peace Prize sends a powerful message. We have the duty to remember. And an even greater duty to protect the next generations from the horrors of nuclear war.” 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.”

In Tokyo, many expressed surprise and joy as workers distributed a special newspaper edition on Hidankyo’s winning of the peace prize. “I would be happy if this award can be an opportunity to make the people around the world think,” said Sayaka Nakanishi, a high school teacher.

Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki, an advocate of nuclear disarmament, said Hidankyo’s win meant “the Nobel Foundation was warning against an international trend toward stronger nuclear armament.”

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.”

Agencies