The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (日本原水爆被害者団体協議会, Nihon gensuibaku higaisha dantai kyōgi-kai), or Nihon Hidankyo (日本被団協).
The grassroots movement formed in 1956 by hibakusha, people affected by the nuclear weapons used by the United States in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, received the Peace Prize 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”.
A global movement arose following the nuclear attacks of August 1945, with members working tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons. Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as “the nuclear taboo”.
The testimony of the hibakusha – 被爆者 or 被曝者; meaning “survivor of the bomb” or “person affected by exposure” – is unique in this larger context. These historical witnesses have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons.
The hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons. The extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo. Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of witness accounts, issued resolutions and public appeals, and sent annual delegations to the United Nations and a variety of peace conferences to remind the world of the pressing need for nuclear disarmament.
One day, the hibakusha will no longer be among us as witnesses to history. But with a strong culture of remembrance and continued commitment, new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of these witnesses. They are inspiring and educating people around the world. They are helping to maintain the nuclear taboo – a precondition of a peaceful future for humanity.
DID YOU KNOW?
Next year, 2025, marks 80 years since the only two atomic bombs ever used in warfare killed an estimated 120,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with a comparable number dying of burn and radiation injuries in the months and years that followed.
