A Nobel for Japan’s atomic bomb survivors
On October 11, the Nobel Institute announced that it was awarding the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo. Survivors of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 (known as hibakusha) created the grassroots organization in 1956 to raise awareness of the horrors of nuclear weapons and to campaign for their abolition.
In 1954, an American nuclear weapons test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific produced such extensive radioactive fallout that it affected a Japanese fishing boat, the Lucky Dragon, causing one death from radiation poisoning. While discussion of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had remained largely taboo in the immediate post-war period – in part thanks to American press censorship in occupied Japan – the Lucky Dragon incident prompted many hibakusha to speak out about their experiences, informing public debates in Japan and increasingly around the world. It was in this context that Nihon Hindankyo was created in 1956.
In the decades since then, hibakusha have played an immeasurable role in activism against nuclear weapons worldwide. By sharing their first-hand stories of the horrors of nuclear weapons, hibakusha have raised awareness of the dangers of nuclear weapons and have mobilized citizens to work for their abolition.
Hibakusha have also influenced anti-nuclear activism much further afield. In 1975, for example, a group of hibakusha including Setsuko Thurlow organized an exhibition on the atomic bombings at the Toronto Public Library, which helped trigger the development of a significant anti-nuclear movement in Canada. In 1984 Takashi Morita co-founded a hibakusha organization based in Sao Paulo to share the stories of hibakusha in Brazil and to raise awareness of the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons. At the United Nations, hibakusha Senji Yamaguchi made a moving appeal for “no more Hiroshima. No more Nagasaki” in 1982. Growing awareness of hibakusha’s experiences inspired Europeans protesting against the deployment of new nuclear missiles in their countries to devise the campaign slogan “No Euroshima!”
Many of Nihon Hindankyo’s efforts have focused not simply on sharing hibakusha’s experiences, but using this to gain support for the abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide. The organization has been an important supporter of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which outlaws nuclear weapons and for which the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
Within Japan, Nihon Hindankyo has worked to challenge the national government’s position on nuclear weapons. Despite the horrors witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government supports American nuclear weapons and is covered by the American nuclear umbrella. Successive Japanese governments have insisted on the importance of nuclear weapons for the country’s national security, but it remains a controversial stance for many in Japan, where every school child typically visits Hiroshima or Nagasaki to learn about the nightmarish consequences of nuclear weapons.
The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hindankyo is especially timely. In 2023, the nine nuclear-armed countries in the world spent over $91 billion on nuclear weapons. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons. With the expansion and modernization of nuclear arsenals in China and the United States, the ongoing development of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and escalating tensions between nuclear-armed Israel and near-nuclear Iran, the threats posed by nuclear weapons today are more apparent than at any time since the Cold War. With barely 100,000 hibakusha alive today, it is imperative that we listen to their voices and their warnings.
To learn more about the history of activism against nuclear weapons since 1945, including hearing hibakusha testimony, join a new, free online course recently co-created by the Open University and ICAN: “Banning the Bomb: A global history of activism against nuclear weapons.”
Luc-Andre Brunet is senior lecturer in contemporary international history at the Open University and co-director of the OU Center for War and Peace. Eirini Karamouzi is associate professor of contemporary history and international relations at the American College of Greece and senior lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Sheffield.
