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Japanese atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo wins Nobel Peace Prize

People visit and say prayers at sunrise at the cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on August 6, 2023, to mark the 78th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack. (AFP)
People visit and say prayers at sunrise at the cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on August 6, 2023, to mark the 78th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack. (AFP)
Toshiyuki Mimaki, president of Nihon Hidankyo, told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday that situation for children in Gaza is similar to the situation in Japan at the end of World War. (Kyodo News via AP)
Toshiyuki Mimaki, president of Nihon Hidankyo, told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday that situation for children in Gaza is similar to the situation in Japan at the end of World War. (Kyodo News via AP)
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11 Oct 2024 06:10:41 GMT9
11 Oct 2024 06:10:41 GMT9

OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha.

The group, founded in 1956, received the honor “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, the co-head of Nihon Hidankyo, said that the situation for children in Gaza is similar to the situation in Japan at the end of World War II. 

“In Gaza, children in blood are being held. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” Toshiyuki Mimaki told a news conference in Tokyo.

He added that the group’s win would give a major boost to its efforts to demonstrate that the abolition of nuclear weapons was possible.

“It would be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved,” Mimaki said. “Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished.”

“It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists,” he added “For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won’t end there. Politicians should know these things.”

The Nobel committee expressed alarm that the international “nuclear taboo” that developed in response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945 was “under pressure”.

“This year’s prize is a prize that focuses on the necessity of upholding this nuclear taboo. And we have all a responsibility, particularly the nuclear powers,” Frydnes told reporters.

Last year, the prestigious prize went to imprisoned women’s rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.

The prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma and a prize sum of $1 million (148,891,500 yen).

Japanese Prime Minister ISHIBA Shigeru commented on the prize, saying, “The fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to this organization, which has spent many years working toward the abolition of nuclear weapons, is extremely meaningful.”

The award will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.

The Peace Prize is the only Nobel awarded in Oslo, with the other disciplines announced in Stockholm.

On Thursday, South Korean author Han Kang won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her work exploring the correspondence between mental and physical torment as well as historical events.

The Nobel season winds up Monday with the economics prize.

AFP

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