Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 has been conferred on a Japanese organization, Nihon Hidankyo, for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons, the media reported on Friday.
The Nobel Committee honored atomic bomb survivors for cultivating hope for peace through their experience.
The organization is a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, which strives to “achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”
Announcing this year’s Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee acknowledged the survivors’ “costly experience.” “They help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” it wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
It noted that no nuclear weapon has been used in any war since 1945, and applauded Nihon Hidankyo’s efforts.
By drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons, the organization has helped consolidate opposition to nuclear weapons, the Committee said.
“The nuclear powers are modernizing and upgrading their arsenals, new countries appear to be preparing to acquire nuclear weapons, and threats are being made to use nuclear weapons in ongoing warfare. At this moment in human history, it is worth reminding ourselves what nuclear weapons are: the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen.”
Since Monday this week, the Nobel Committee has already announced the prestigious prizes for 2024 in Physiology/Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Literature. The Prize for Economics is expected to be announced next week.
It carries a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash award of USD 1 million (913,000 euros).