Nihon Hidankyo Awarded 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for Activism Against Nuclear Weapons

Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki established for its activism against nuclear weapons.

The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. The taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine in a move he hoped would deter the West from allowing Ukraine to launch strikes at Russia with longer-range missiles.

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Nihon Hidankyo Awarded 2024 Nobel Peace Prize

It seemed to significantly lower the threshold for possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal. The Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to honor all survivors of the atrocities launched by atomic bombs. The prize with it, the committee wishes to honour all survivors of violence and the victims of oppression and racism, who struggle for justice and human dignity,” Hidankyo’s Hiroshima branch chairperson, Tomoyuki Mimaki, who was standing by at the city hall for the announcement, cheered and teared up as he received the news. “Is it really true? Unbelievable!” Mimaki screamed. It is not the first time that the efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honored by the Nobel Committee.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the Peace Prize in 2017, and in 1995 Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.” This year’s prize was awarded against a backdrop of devastating conflicts raging in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.

“It is very clear that threats of using nuclear weapons are putting pressure on the important international norm, the taboo of using nuclear weapons,” Watne Frydnes said when asked whether rhetoric coming from Russia into its invasion of Ukraine had been a factor in this year’s move. “Therefore it is alarming to see how threats of use are also damaging this norm.” To maintain an international taboo against the use, it is important for all of humanity, he added.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on X: “The spectre of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still looms over humanity. This makes advocacy from Nihon Hidankyo invaluable. This Nobel Peace Prize sends a powerful message. We must remember. And an even greater duty to protect the next generations from the horrors of nuclear war.”

Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that the Peace Prize was to be conferred from Nihon Hidankyo “to the person who, during the preceding year, shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for holding and promoting peace congresses.” Last year’s prize was awarded to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammad for advocating women’s rights and democracy and against the death penalty.

Conclusion:

The fact that Nihon Hidankyo was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize places an even stronger imperative on nuclear disarmament in today’s world as nuclear conflict hangs high over the horizon. Such an award is not only a recognition of survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also serves a reminder as powerful as the atomic blast that had hit those places of the devastation wrought by such armaments.

While the world continues to be on shaky ground because of the war in Ukraine and bellicose nuclear rhetoric, the Nobel Committee’s move reinforces the case for further efforts at maintaining the taboo against nuclear use and the avoidance of that anguished future among generations. Nuclear arms shall never be remembered as a possibility even in the face of conflicts – while this is the only way the world can become peaceful, free of nuclear weapons.