Nihon Hidankyo, a group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, has accepted the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons”.
Now in their 80s and 90s, members of the group who survived the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki accepted the award at a ceremony in Oslo’s City Hall in Norway.
In an interview he had with Al Jazeera inside the place where the awards were given, Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82, who is the chairman of Nihon Hidankyo, said he was surprised to hear that the group won this year’s award.
“I was in Hiroshima City Hall at that time watching the announcement, and I expected that the award this year would go to people working for peace in Gaza,” he said.
“I was really shocked.”
He said the group’s mission is to “ensure that nuclear weapons will never be used again”, and that this includes ending the war in Gaza.
Terumi Tanaka, who delivered the acceptance speech for Nihon Hidankyo, also expressed concern about the ongoing wars in Palestine and Ukraine.
“Nuclear Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine, and a member of the Israeli cabinet, during its relentless attack on Gaza in Palestine, even talked about using nuclear weapons,” Tanaka said.
“I am deeply saddened and angry that the nuclear taboo is threatening to be broken,” he said.
In his speech, Tanaka recalled the “bright white light” when an American bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, three days after the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
“Many people who were seriously injured or burned, but still alive, were left without anyone, without receiving help. I almost lost my emotions, I somehow shut down my sense of humanity, I just went straight to where I was going,” he said.
Since then, Tanaka has joined other survivors who have worked for decades to contribute to efforts to prevent nuclear weapons from ever being used again, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
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