Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki, who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, reacts as he speaks during an interview with Reuters on the following day of Nihon Hidankyo winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima, western Japan.
Credit: Reuters Photo
The choice of Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ group, for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a timely reminder of the threat that nuclear weapons pose to the world. It might be considered as only a symbolic gesture that may not have a big impact on the decisions and actions of world powers and leaders. But working for peace is among the most urgent needs of the world, just as fighting climate change or poverty or inequality is. A nuclear conflagration has never been out of the realm of possibilities since 1945. It came close to that during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Russian President Vladimir Putin has continued to wield the N-threat in his ongoing war against Ukraine. The US and China are modernising and expanding their nuclear arsenals as their power contest intensifies. There is rising concern among many over the prospect of the use of nuclear weapons, and that makes the award of the prize to Nihon Hidankyo relevant.
The organisation has been campaigning against the use and possession of nuclear weapons and telling the world of the danger to health and lives they pose and the impact they will have on generations of victims. It represents the “hibakusha”, the victims of the US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and its campaign is thus backed by the direct experience of the horrors of nuclear war. It is estimated that over two lakh people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the generations since have suffered the after-effects of the bombs. The organisation has been campaigning by providing thousands of witness accounts, issuing resolutions and public appeals, and sending annual delegations to the United Nations and to peace conferences to “remind the world of the pressing need for nuclear disarmament”. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has said that it wanted to send a message to world leaders that humanity and nuclear weapons cannot co-exist.
The momentum of the campaign against nuclear weapons and initiatives to reduce the number of weapons and other constraints against their use have been waning in recent years. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and other international treaties and laws have looked ineffective. The UN and other international bodies whose declared aim is to curb nuclear weapons and promote peace have also been ineffective. The Nobel Prize for Nihon Hidankyo will not put an end to the concerns over nuclear weapons, but it can help bring into focus the threat faced by the world from them and the need to strengthen the campaign against these weapons.