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photo-article-logo Tuesday, 05 November 2024

Nuclear disarmament group hopes Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo will combat apathy

The Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Peace Prize in 2017 for its efforts to promote compliance with the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Reuters Geneva Published 11.10.24, 06:07 PM

A coalition campaigning against nuclear weapons said on Friday that it hoped the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo would counter apathy surrounding the growing risk of their use.

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Terumi Tanaka, a Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor and co-chairperson of Nihon Hidankyo, a country-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers, poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at the Nihon Hidankyo office in Tokyo, Japan July 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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The Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Peace Prize in 2017 for its efforts to promote compliance with the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Shigemitsu Tanaka, a member of Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, cries after the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner was announced in Nagasaki, Japan October 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Daniel Hogsta, its deputy director, told Reuters he was "absolutely thrilled" for Nihon Hidankyo, representing atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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U.S. President Barack Obama (L) hugs with atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. (Reuters)

"It couldn't have come at a better time," he said. "I mean, it is generally recognised that the risk of the use of nuclear weapons right now is as high or perhaps even higher than it's ever been."

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People react as they receive an extra edition of Yomiuri Newspaper about Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in Tokyo, Japan October 11, 2024. (Reuters)

He cited the Ukraine war, where Russia has been warning that growing Western involvement increases the danger that it could resort to nuclear weapons.

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Koichi Kawano, a survivor of the atomic bombing in Nagasaki, speaks to the press after the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner was announced, in Nagasaki, Japan, August 11, 2024. (Reuters)

"But there's unfortunately too much apathy," Hogsta said. "And what Nihon Hidankyo have shown us, and why this award is so important, is that people and political leaders need to be motivated for action."

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A view shows the Peace Statue at Nagasaki Peace Park in Nagasaki, Japan, October 11, 2024. (Reuters)

ICAN is a coalition of non-governmental organisations from around 100 countries that lobbied successfully for the adoption of the nuclear weapons ban treaty, which 73 countries have ratified.

"We will continue to work closely with Nihon Hidankyo and Hibakusha across the world to make sure that the treaty is the game changer that it has the potential to be," Hogsta said.

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