UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 (IPS) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres congratulates Japanese grassroots organization Nihon Hidankyo on being awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
“The survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs, also known as the hibakusha, are selfless, soul-bearing witnesses to the horrific human cost of nuclear weapons,” he said in a statement.
“While their numbers are shrinking every year, the hibakusha’s relentless work and resilience are the backbone of the global nuclear disarmament movement.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2024 Peace Prize for “her efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons should never be used again”.
The committee said the global movement emerged in response to the August 1945 atomic bombings.
“The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this broader context. These historical witnesses have helped generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories and creating educational campaigns based on their own experiences and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons , help us describe the indescribable, think the unthinkable, and somehow understand the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.
It named Nihon Hidankyo, who reportedly cried after the announcement, and other representatives of the Hibakusha, as having contributed greatly to the creation of the “nuclear taboo.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee acknowledged one encouraging fact: “No nuclear weapon has been used in war in almost 80 years.”
The award comes as the world prepares to celebrate 80 years since two US atomic bombs killed an estimated 120,000 residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A similar number died from fire and radiation injuries in the following months and years.
“Today’s nuclear weapons have much greater destructive power. They could kill millions and would have a catastrophic impact on the climate. A nuclear war could destroy our civilization,” the committee said.
“The fate of those who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki infernos was long hidden and neglected. In 1956, local Hibakusha associations, together with victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific, formed the Japanese Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. This name was shortened to Nihon Hidankyo in Japanese. It would become the largest and most influential Hibakusha organization in Japan.
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 fulfills Alfred Nobel’s wish to recognize efforts that bring the greatest benefit to humanity.
Guterres said he would “never forget my many encounters with them over the years. Their terrifying living testimony reminds the world that the nuclear threat is not limited to history books. Nuclear weapons remain a clear and present danger to humanity and are re-emerging in the daily rhetoric of international relations.”
He said the only way to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them altogether.
IPS UN agency report
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