Japan's Nihon Hidankyo gets Nobel Peace Prize 2024 for anti-nuclear weapons movement

Japan’s Nihon Hidankyo has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

Nihon Hidankyo is a grassroots movement of survivors of atomic bomb attacks in Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which is also known as Hibakusha.

Nihon Hidankyo has been awarded the 2024 Nobel 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, said the Nobel Committee.

Following the death and destruction from atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a global anti-nuclear weapon movement emerged that declared the usage of such weapons a taboo. The Nobel Committee said that the testimony of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, which Nihon Hidankyo is dedicated to bringing to the fore, is important 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,” said the Nobel Committee in a press release.

The Nihon Hidankyo and testimonies of survivors it brings help describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons, said the Nobel Committee.

With the passage of time, there will come a time when no survivor of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks will be amongst us, but with a strong culture of remembrance and continued commitment developed by Nihon Hidankyo, new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses, said the Nobel Committee.

The Nobel Peace Prize to an anti-nuclear weapons movement comes at a time when threats of nuclear weapons are the fore again. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has repeatedly threatened the West with nuclear weapons and has also announced the change in nuclear doctrine that lowers the threshold for the usage of nuclear weapons.