The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to the Japanese Nihon Hidankyo organization of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activity against nuclear weapons.
Jorgen Watne Fredness, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the prize was awarded because “the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.”
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, in a move aimed at dissuading the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range weapons. It appeared to have significantly lowered the threshold for potential use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Watney Frieden said the Nobel Committee “wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and traumatic memories, chose to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engage for peace.”
The president of the Hidankyo branch in Hiroshima, Tomoyuki Mimaki, who was standing in city hall for the announcement, was thrilled and cried when he received the news.
“Is this really true? Unbelievable!” Mimaki shouted.
Efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons have previously been honored by the Nobel Committee. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Peace Prize in 2017, and in 1995 Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won “for their efforts to reduce the role that nuclear weapons play in international politics and, in the long term, to eliminate these weapons.”
Beatrice Fihn, who was ICAN’s executive director when she won the Nobel Prize, said the Nihon Hidankyo honor was “very emotional.”
“We are partners in this fight,” she told the Associated Press.
The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki “know nuclear weapons better than most.” “They know what it looks like, what it feels like, what it smells like when your city is burning from the use of nuclear weapons,” she said.
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top political, economic and current affairs news, headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
This year’s award was awarded against the backdrop of the devastating conflicts raging in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.
“It is very clear that threats to use nuclear weapons put pressure on the important international norm, which is prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons,” Watney Frieden said, in response to a question about whether Russian rhetoric surrounding nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine. It influenced this year’s resolution.
“It is therefore worrying to see how threats of use are also damaging this norm. Upholding strong international taboos against use is crucial for all of humanity,” he added.
“The specter of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still looms over humanity,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on the X programme. This makes Nihon Hidankyo’s advocacy invaluable. This Nobel Peace Prize sends a strong message. We have a duty to remember. A greater duty is to protect future generations from the horrors of nuclear war.
The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 people, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, which killed 140,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending World War II and nearly half a century of its aggression throughout Asia.
Nihon Hidankyo was founded in 1956 by survivors of the attacks and victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific amid calls for government support for health problems.
“The survivors of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as hibakusha, are dedicated and passionate witnesses to the horrific human cost of nuclear weapons,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a congratulatory statement.
He added: “Nuclear weapons continue to pose a clear and present danger to humanity, and are once again appearing in the daily discourse of international relations.” “It is time for world leaders to be as clear as the hibakusha and see nuclear weapons for what they are: devices of death that provide no safety, protection or security.”
Alfred Nobel stated in his will that the Peace Prize should be awarded “for the most or best work of brotherhood among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the convening and strengthening of peace conferences.”
Last year’s award went to imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her defense of women’s rights and democracy and against the death penalty. The Nobel Prize Committee said it was also recognition of the “hundreds of thousands of people” who demonstrated against the theocratic regime’s “discriminatory and oppressive policies targeting women.”
In a year of conflict, there has been speculation that the Norwegian Nobel Committee may choose not to award the prize at all. The award has been withheld 19 times since 1901, including during both world wars. The last time it was not awarded was in 1972.
In the Middle East, escalating levels of violence last year led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people, including women and children. The war, which was sparked by a raid by Hamas-led militants on Israel on October 7, 2023, and resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, spread to the wider region.
Last week, Israel sent ground forces to Lebanon to pursue Hezbollah fighters firing rockets at Israel, while Iran – which supports Hamas and Hezbollah – fired ballistic missiles at Israel. Israel has not yet responded, but its Defense Minister pledged this week that its response would be devastating and surprising.
The war in Gaza led to the deaths of more than 42,000 people, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its statistics, but says that more than half of them are women and children. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed, thousands more injured and nearly a million people displaced since mid-September, when the Israeli army significantly expanded its offensive against Hezbollah.
The war in Ukraine, sparked by the Russian invasion, is heading toward its third winter with heavy casualties on both sides.
The United Nations has confirmed the deaths of more than 11,000 Ukrainian civilians, but this does not take into account up to 25,000 Ukrainians believed to have been killed during Russia’s takeover of Mariupol or unreported deaths in the occupied territories.
The Nobel Prizes carry a cash prize of 11 million Swedish krona ($1 million). Unlike other prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, the Peace Prize was decreed by its founder Alfred Nobel and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel season concludes on Monday with the announcement of the winner of the Economics Prize, officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel.
—Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Bekatoros from Athens, Greece. Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Philippe Jean in Vienna, Laurie Hinnant in Paris, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed.
