2024 Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Japanese Anti-Nuclear War Organization
The symbol of the Nobel Peace Prize, 2024. X/ @NobelPrize
October 11, 2024 Hour: 7:32 am
‘By receiving this great prize, our words will carry more weight,’ the Nihon Hidankyo chairperson said.
On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through eyewitness testimonies that nuclear weapons should never be used again.”
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Nihon Hidankyo was founded in 1956 by “hibakusha,” or survivors of the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 11 years earlier. Since then, this Japanese organization has been spreading the testimonies of the survivors around the world and promoting a nuclear-free world.
“I believe that by receiving this great prize, our words will carry more weight,” said the Nihon Hidankyo chairperson Toshiyuki Mimaki, who was 3 years old when the first nuclear bomb in history was dropped on the city where he lived with his family.
“We are already growing old. Our average age is 85. But we rely on the next generation,” he said, referring to the survivors of the atomic bombings.
“I want nuclear weapons to be eliminated while we are still alive. That is the wish of all 114,000 surviving hibakusha. I am against war. Once it starts, a war is not easily stopped,” warned Mimaki, who said that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to his organization caused great surprise in the city of Hiroshima.
Another member of Nihon Hidankyo, Nagasaki bombing survivor Sueichi Kido, stated that the Nobel Prize “recognizes the results of many years of struggle” by the organization, and confessed that the award brings to mind the faces of other hibakusha comrades who have already passed away.
Japan’s Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, also praised the award, calling it a very important prize for an organization “that has been working for a long time,” as he stated at a press conference following his participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE