The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, which brings together survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, “for their efforts in favor of a world without nuclear weapons.”
The group, founded in 1956, was recognized “for its efforts in favor of a world without nuclear weapons and for having demonstrated, through testimonies, that nuclear weapons should never be used again,” said the president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. , Jørgen Watne Frydnes.
Nihon Hidankyo co-president Toshiyuki Mimaki was surprised to learn that his organization was awarded. “I never dreamed this could happen,” he said excitedly at a press conference in Tokyo.
The president of the Nobel Committee considered it “alarming” that the “veto on the use of nuclear weapons” that was generated in response to the atomic bombings of August 1945 is now “under pressure.”
“This year’s award is an award that focuses on the need to uphold this nuclear veto. And we all have a responsibility, particularly the nuclear powers,” Frydnes told reporters. Almost 80 years after the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the last survivors of the double tragedy continue to fight to perpetuate memory and for the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
‘Gaza like Japan 80 years ago’
Mimaki considered that the current situation in the Gaza Strip, the scene of a war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for a year, is similar to that of Japan devastated by bombs at the end of World War II.
“In Gaza, (parents) hold bloodied children in their arms. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” he declared. “It has been said that thanks to nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists,” he said. “For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, or Israel against Gaza, it won’t end there. Politicians should know those things,” he insisted. Moscow has repeatedly used the threat of nuclear weapons to try to dissuade Western countries from supporting Ukraine, which faces Russian invasion from February 2022. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called the Nihon Hidankyo Prize “extremely significant”. For the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the award represents a “powerful message.” “The specter of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still looms over humanity. This makes the action of Nihon Hidankyo invaluable,” he stated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A similar number later died from burns and radiation injuries.
‘It would destroy our civilization’
The president of the Nobel Committee pointed out that “current nuclear weapons have much greater destructive power.”
“A nuclear war would destroy our civilization,” Frydnes warned. In January, there were 12,121 nuclear warheads in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This is not the first time that activists or organizations in favor of disarmament have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1975 the Prize was awarded to Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and in 1985 it was won by the International Association of Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. In 1995, Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash movement were recognized. In 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, won the award, which in 2017 went to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Last year, Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned in her country, was awarded for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran. The Prize will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the awards’ creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Peace Prize is the only one awarded in Oslo, while the rest of the disciplines are announced in Stockholm. The recognition is accompanied by a gold medal, a diploma and a check for one million dollars. After this week’s awards for Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace, the session will culminate on Monday with the Nobel Prize in Economics.
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