They survived nuclear weapons. Now they’ve won a Nobel peace Prize for trying to end them.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Oct. 11 to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award was made as 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 discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons. It appeared to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Mr. Watne Frydnes said the Nobel committee “wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.”
Hidankyo’s Hiroshima branch chairperson, Tomoyuki Mimaki, who was standing by at the city hall for the announcement, cheered and teared up when he received the news.
“Is it really true? Unbelievable!” Mr. Mimaki screamed.
Efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honored before by the Nobel committee. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 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 diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”
This year’s prize was awarded against a backdrop of devastating conflicts raging in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Sudan.
“It is very clear that threats of using nuclear weapons are putting pressure on the important international norm, the taboo of using nuclear weapons,” Mr. Watne Frydnes said in response to a question on whether the rhetoric from Russia surrounding nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine had influenced this year’s decision.
“And therefore it is alarming to see how threats of use is also damaging this norm. To uphold an international strong taboo against the use is crucial for all of humanity,” he added.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that “the specter of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still looms over humanity. This makes the advocacy of Nihon Hidankyo invaluable. This Nobel Peace Prize sends a powerful message. We have the duty to remember. And an even greater duty to protect the next generations from the horrors of nuclear war.”
The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killing 70,000 people, three days after its bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.
Nihon Hidankyo was formed in 1956 by survivors of the attacks and victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific amid demands for government support for health problems.
“The atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as the hibakusha, are selfless, soul-bearing witnesses of the horrific human cost of nuclear weapons,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a congratulatory statement.
“Nuclear weapons remain a clear and present danger to humanity, once again appearing in the daily rhetoric of international relations,” he added. “It is time for world leaders to be as clear-eyed as the hibakusha, and see nuclear weapons for what they are: devices of death that offer no safety, protection, or security.”
Alfred Nobel stated in his will that the peace prize should be awarded for “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Last year’s prize went to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her advocacy of women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty. The Nobel committee said it also was a recognition of “the hundreds of thousands of people” who demonstrated against the “theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women.”
In a year of conflict, there was speculation the Norwegian Nobel Committee might opt to not award a prize at all. The prize 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, spiraling levels of violence in the past year have killed tens of thousands of people, including women and children. The war, sparked by a raid into Israel by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, that left about 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, has spilled into the wider region.
In the past week, Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon to pursue Hezbollah militants firing rockets into Israel, while Iran – which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah – fired ballistic missiles into Israel. Israel has yet to respond, but its defense minister vowed this week that its retaliation would be both devastating and surprising.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than half are women and children. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed, with thousands more injured and around 1 million displaced since mid-September, when the Israeli military dramatically expanded its offensive against Hezbollah.
The war in Ukraine, sparked by Russia’s invasion, is heading toward its third winter with a massive loss of human life on both sides.
The U.N. has confirmed more than 11,000 Ukrainian civilian dead, but that doesn’t take into account as many as 25,000 Ukrainians believed killed during the Russian capture of the city of Mariupol or unreported deaths in occupied regions.
The Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). Unlike the other prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, founder Alfred Nobel decreed the peace prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel season ends Oct. 14 with the announcement of the winner of the economics prize, formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Becatoros from Athens, Greece. Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Lori Hinnant in Paris and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed.
