Hidankyo Receives Nobel Peace Prize

Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, received Nobel Peace Prize of 2024 at the capital of Norway, Oslo, on December 10th. Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Hidankyo for its tireless efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons with a massage that human beings cannot co-exist this unhumanitarian device called nuclear weapon. The suffers, or Hibakusha, are not satisfied with the reality of the world, where threat of nuclear weapons still remains.

Three hibakushas participated in the ceremony of receiving Nobel Peace Prize at the city hall of Oslo, representing sufferers of atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of whom had deceased with unimaginable pain of nuclear weapon. The rest of them, who are living their lives with threat of negative impact of radiation, cerebrated acknowledgement of the world about inhumanity of nuclear weapons.

 

In the memorial speech at the ceremony, one of the representatives, Terumi Tanaka, 92, insisted that they had been making effort to formulate “nuclear taboo” to the world. “I embrace unlimited regret and anger against the fact that nuclear taboo is mostly destroyed by the threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine War by Russia or persistent attacks on Gaza Strip by Israel,” said Tanaka.

 

At the age of thirteen, Tanaka was exposed to an atomic bomb at home in the city of Nagasaki, located three kilometers from the place where the bomb was dropped. One atomic bomb took five lives of his family. Tanaka witnessed extremely miserable deaths of his families, which could not be said as a death of human beings. He firmly believed any man should not kill or hurt the people in that way even in a war.

 

The anger of Tanaka was also directed to the government of Japan, which has been reluctant to recognize its responsibility for waging war and to compensate for exacerbation of health of hibakushas. “The government kept on rejecting compensation, limiting its effort to treatment of health. Even the Hibakusha Supporting Act of 1994 did not included compensation for the victims,” said Tanaka. Demanding governmental compensation was one of the causes of establishing Nihon Hidankyo.

 

What the hibakushas emphasize in their activities for eliminating nuclear weapons has been denial of nuclear deterrence. They hope that the human beings do not possess any one nuclear weapon, dismissing theory of nuclear deterrence which is based on possession and use of nuclear weapons. “We hope generalization of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and conclusion of an international treaty for elimination of nuclear weapons, with planting the people of nuclear powers a belief that a nuclear weapon cannot coexist with human beings,” said Tanaka.

 

However, the prime minister of the only country in the world having suffered from nuclear weapon in a war still believes in nuclear deterrence. “I don’t have any idea of denying extended deterrence,” said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in a Diet discussion on the same day of Hidankyo’s receiving Nobel Peace Prize. Against the hope of Hibakushas, the government still rely on nuclear umbrella of the United States, which dropped two atomic bombs on Japan’s soil.

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