Nobel Peace Prize Winners: “Abolish Nuclear Weapons”

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize went to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese association formed by hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) that fights for the abolition of nuclear weapons. What came from Oslo (where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded and the others are given in Stockholm) is intended as a message reaffirming the dangers of nuclear weapons at a time of very serious international tension.

And this message was echoed by Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the American bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, one of the leaders of the Nihon Hidankyo group.

“The international situation is progressively deteriorating, and wars are now breaking out, in which countries are threatening to use nuclear weapons,” Tanaka explained. “I fear that humanity is on a path to self-destruction. The only way to stop it is to abolish nuclear weapons.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in awarding the prize, recalled the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, praising the work of the Japanese team to rid the world of nuclear weapons.