Nobel Peace Prize Winners Urge Youth to Fight Nuclear Weapons

A group of Japanese atomic bombing survivors have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo
Nobel Peace Prize, Japanese atomic bomb survivors, nuclear-free world, Nihon Hidankyo, hibakusha, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, nuclear weapons campaign, witness testimony, nuclear taboo, nuclear disarmament, nuclear warheads, Ukraine, Gaza, UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, nuclear powers, Nobel Institute, nuclear age, Norway, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, nuclear power risks, humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors,Editor, atomic bomb survivors' group, nuclear weapons threat

A Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ group has urged young people to take up the fight for a nuclear-free world while accepting this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of survivors of the 1945 nuclear bombings of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is campaigning for a world free of nuclear weapons using witness testimony.

ABC News reported Nihon Hidankyo’s ranks are dwindling with every year.  The Japanese government lists around 106,800 survivors of the bombings, also known as “hibakusha”, still alive today. Their average age is 85.

“Ten years from now, there may only be a handful of us able to give testimony as firsthand survivors,” Terumi Tanaka, 92, told the audience. “From now on, I hope that the next generation will find ways to build on our efforts and develop the movement even further.

Mr Tanaka’s group had “undoubtedly” played a major role in creating the worldwide standard that it was unacceptable to use atomic weapons, or ‘nuclear taboo’, he said. But he warned that standard was being weakened.

“In addition to the civilian casualties, I am infinitely saddened and angered that the ‘nuclear taboo’ risks being broken,” he said.

Nihon Hidankyo was also represented at the ceremony by its two other co-chairs, Shigemitsu Tanaka, 84, and Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82.

An estimated 210,000 people died, either immediately or over time, as a result of the bombs dropped in August 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today’s nuclear weapons are far more powerful than those used at that time.

Mr Tanaka was 13 years old at the time of the Nagasaki bombing, and although he survived the explosion almost unharmed at his home some 3km from ground zero, he lost five family members and recalled the harrowing experience.

“The deaths I witnessed at that time could hardly be described as human deaths. There were hundreds of people suffering in agony, unable to receive any kind of medical attention,” Mr Tanaka told the audience.

Mr Tanaka expressed concern over threats to use nuclear weapons in the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza. “There still remain 12,000 nuclear warheads on Earth today, 4,000 of which are operationally deployed, ready for immediate launch,” Mr Tanaka said.

In 2017, 122 governments negotiated and adopted the historic UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but the text is considered largely symbolic as no nuclear power has signed it.

While all ambassadors stationed in Oslo were invited to Tuesday’s ceremony, the only nuclear powers in attendance were Britain, France, India, Pakistan and the United States. Russia, China, Israel and Iran were not present, the Nobel Institute said.

Expressing concern about the world entering “a new, more unstable nuclear age”, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes warned that “a nuclear war could destroy our civilisation”.

“Today’s nuclear weapons … have far greater destructive power than the two bombs used against Japan in 1945,” Mr Frydnes said.  “They could kill millions of us in an instant, injure even more, and disrupt the climate catastrophically.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read Also
Islamabad High Court, Justice Sarfaraz Dogar, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, IHC reconstitution, Departmental Promotion Committee, IHC seniority list, Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, judicial transfers, judicial appointments, Pakistan legal system, IHC notification, judicial autonomy, Article 194, Judicial Commission of Pakistan, legal reforms, IHC judges, IHC administration, judicial protest Islamabad, judicial strike Pakistan, IHC chief justice, Editor, Khudayar Mohla, Shahbaz Shah, senior puisne judge, IHC judge transfer, Pakistan judiciary news, judicial commission meeting, February 10, 2025.
Courts

IHC Sees Flurry of Changes with Arrival of New Judges

Updated seniority list includes Justice Sarfaraz Dogar, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Jus­tice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, Justice Saman Rif­fat Imtiaz, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro, Justice Mohammad Azam Khan, Justice Mohammad Asif and Justice Inaam Ameen Minhas

Read More »
Categories
Open chat
1
Hello
Can we help you?