Nihon Hidankyo, Japan’s atomic bomb victims’ group, accepted its Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday, advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons that are re-emerging as a threat 80 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
Nagasaki survivor Terumi Tanaka, 92, one of the three co-chairs of Nihon Hidankyo, called for “action from governments to achieve” a nuclear-free world.
The award came at a time when countries like Russia – which has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal – are increasingly claiming nuclear threats.
“I am extremely sad and angry that the ‘nuclear taboo’ is in danger of being broken,” Tanaka told dignitaries dressed in traditional Norwegian bunads or Japanese kimonos at Oslo’s City Hall.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made nuclear threats while pushing for war in Ukraine. He signed a decree reducing the limits on the use of nuclear weapons in November.
A few days later, in an attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the Russian military fired a new hypersonic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, although in this case it had a regular payload.
Relying on the testimony of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, Nihon Hidankyo works to free the planet from weapons of mass destruction, known as “hibakusha”.
American bombings of Japanese cities on August 6 and 9, 1945 killed 214,000 people, leading to Japan’s surrender in World War II.
burnt bodies
Tanaka was 13 years old when Nagasaki was bombed, the epicenter of which was just three kilometers (1.8 mi) west of his home. Five members of his family were murdered.
He was reading a book on the upper floor when the A-bomb was dropped.
He recalled, “I heard the explosion and suddenly saw a bright white light that engulfed everything and everything went silent.”
“I was really surprised. I thought my life was in danger.”
Rushing to the ground floor, he was knocked unconscious when two glass doors, blown up by the explosion, fell on him, although the glass did not break.
Three days later, he and his mother set out in search of their relatives. Only then did they realize the enormity of the disaster.
“When we reached a peak high above the hills, we could see the city below and then, for the first time, we saw that there was absolutely nothing left. Everything was black and burnt.”
He saw seriously injured people running away from the city, charred bodies lying on the roadside. He and his mother cremated his aunt’s body “with their own hands”.
“I was numb, couldn’t feel anything.”
The rank of Nihon Hidankyo has been declining with each passing year. The Japanese government lists approximately 106,800 “hibakusha” who are still alive today. Their average age is 85 years.
‘Maintain the nuclear prohibition’
For the West, nuclear threats also come from North Korea, which has increased its ballistic missile testing, and Iran, which is suspected of trying to develop nuclear weapons, although it denies this.
Nine countries now possess nuclear weapons: Britain, China, France, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United States and, unofficially, Israel.
Tanaka said, “Our movement has undoubtedly played a major role in creating ‘nuclear prohibition’.”
“However, there are still 12,000 nuclear weapons on Earth today, 4,000 of which are actively deployed, ready for immediate launch.”
In 2017, 122 governments negotiated and adopted the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), but the text is considered largely symbolic as no nuclear power has signed it.
While all ambassadors posted in Oslo were invited to Tuesday’s ceremony, only Britain, France, India, Pakistan and the United States were present. The Nobel Institute said Russia, China, Israel and Iran were not present.
Expressing concern about the world entering “a new, more unstable nuclear age”, Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Jørgen Wattne Friednes warned that “nuclear war could destroy our civilization”.
He warned, “Today’s nuclear weapons … possess far more destructive power than the two bombs used against Japan in 1945. They can kill millions of us in an instant, injuring even more.” “, and could catastrophically disrupt the climate.”
Later, Nobel laureates for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics received their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at a separate ceremony in Stockholm, followed by a banquet for about 1,250 guests.
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