The Nobel Peace Prize 2024 has been awarded to the Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors, Nihon Hidankyo for its tireless activism against nuclear weapons.
The atomic bomb survivors, who are facing a rapidly dwindling population and shrinking time to convey their firsthand horror, are using this prestigious honor to send their message to younger generations.
One of the survivors, Terumi Tanaka, who survived the Nagasaki bombing at age 13, expressed his hopes that this honor will raise public awareness about a nuclear weapons free world.
“Now we face the crisis in which nuclear weapons may be actually used and they are not even going away, we need to properly communicate with younger people and teach them about atomic weapons and the work we have been doing,” Tanaka told a news conference in Tokyo alongside other survivors.
He further added, “So everyone can think what he or she can do.”
The first atomic bomb, out of two bomb dropped on Japan in 1945, killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima.
While, a second atomic attack on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killed another 70,000.
Eleven years after the end of World War II, Hidankyo was formed to represent atomic bomb survivors.
