Nobel Peace Prize goes to Japan’s anti-nuke movement

This year’s Nobel Price for Peace has been awarded to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo - a mass movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Nihon Hidankyo, also known as Hibakusha, has been awarded the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for making people and governments aware of the dangers posed by atomic weapons through testimony by witnesses to America’s 1945 nuking of the two Japanese cities.

The movement has succeeded in raising the awareness about the catastrophic consequences of the use of atomic weapons and building up global resistance to the nuclear bomb.

The testimony of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has helped to generate and consolidate the widespread opposition to nuclear weapons on a larger scale.

The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki used first hand personal experiences as well as eye witness accounts to run educational campaigns to convey the indescribable pin and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.

While acknowledging the `nuclear taboo’ that Hibakusha and other like them have helped to build against the use of atomic weapons, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the resistance movement has, at least in part, helped to ensure that it has not been used ever since 1945.

The timing of the award is significant as it comes at a time when the world is on the brink of such a catastrophe.

Eighty years ago, The nuclear weapons are manifold stronger and have far greater destructive power,. These are also being constantly upgraded so that one nuclear weapon may be enough to wipe out an entire nation, says the Nobel Prize Committee.