“Never Give Up”, “No More Atomic Bomb” & “No More War”, a long, arduous grassroots movement wins Nobel Peace Prize 2024

Congratulations to Hidankyo for winning the Nobel Peace Prize!

In 1949, soon after the war in 1945, Japan’s first Nobel Prize was awarded to Hideki Yukawa for Nobel Prize in Physics. Since then, 28 Japanese have received the Nobel Prize, including those who have acquired U.S. citizenship.

Hi how are you? 　 This is the first time in 50 years that Japan has received the Nobel Peace Prize since former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1974 for proposing Japan’s three nonnuclear principles.

With the endless Ukrainian-Russian war and the Israeli conflict in the Middle East, nuclear wars are likely to come from anywhere in the world today.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an organization、Hidankyo that has been calling for the abolition of nuclear war in Japan, the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, for more than half a century.

Check out the video to see the horror and misery of the atomic bombing!

This is a blog that I sincerely hope will be a turning point towards a true world peace where nuclear weapons are unnecessary as a deterrent.

That’s because the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the grassroots movement by the atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reflects the widely shared fear that the earth may be on the verge of nuclear war.

What’s “Hidankyo”?

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (日本原水爆被害者団体協議会), often shortened to Nihon Hidankyō (日本被団協, Nihon Hidankyō), is a group formed by “hibakusha” (A‐bomb victim; a victim of radiation sickness caused by an atomic bomb) in 1956.

Founded in August 10 1956; 68 years ago, Focus: Abolition of nuclear weapons, Headquarters: Shibadaimon, Minato, Tokyo and Website: www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english/

And the main goals is pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

What’s more, Hidankyo is sending annual delegations to various international organisations, including the United Nations, to advocate for global nuclear disarmament.

What does the paper crane in the featured/eye-catch image mean?

The Children’s Peace Monument (Atomic Bomb Children Statue) is a monument for peace to commemorate Sadako Sasaki and the thousands of child victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

This monument is located in Hiroshima, Japan. Sadako Sasaki, a young girl, died of leukemia from radiation of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.

‘A wake-up call to the world’

 
There are tons of tragic stories caused by the atomic bomb, but I’d like to introduce two of them as follows,

“Please don’t look away” – “Red Back” – the legacy of Sumiteru Taniguchi

Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor Taniguchi Sumiteru’s wounds never healed.

The skin on his back, which was burned down to the bone, never returned to normal and he lost his sweat glands. Even when it was hot, he couldn’t sweat and his body temperature did not go down. “Summer is miserable,” he would complain to those around him.

The keloids that remained all over his back were removed whenever they hardened and raised. He underwent more than 20 surgeries on his back in his lifetime.

His wife Eiko (deceased) continued to apply moisturizing ointment every day to prevent his back from cracking.

With that body, he responded to a flood of requests to give talks from within Japan and overseas.

Don’t let the “Remembrance of Deaths” go to waste!

Setsuko Thurlow, 92, an A-bomb survivor living in Canada, appealed, “The only way to make the award ceremony truly meaningful is to realize nuclear abolition as soon as possible,” so that the “regrettable deaths” of numerous A-bomb victims will not be in vain.

In her congratulatory address, she said, “As an A-bomb survivor, I feel great joy from my heart” at the decision to award the Peace Prize, but she also stressed the need for nuclear abolition, saying, “There are many A-bomb victims who did not live to hear the decision. and, “I am thinking again of the unfortunate dead whose lives were taken as if their bodies melted in an instant.” she again emphasized the need for nuclear abolition .

Finally, “Unless nuclear weapons are eliminated, the world will never be truly peaceful”
I sincerely hope that we will one day soon live in a world without conflict or war. Thank you for watching.
 
 
Following two blogs are well worth visiting,
Denuclearization and Peace are strongly called for by Atomic Bomb Victims in Hiroshima & Nagasaki

“It’s a small effort, but not powerless” slogan by High School Peace Messengers