The survivors of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as “hibakusha” (“bomb-affected people”), have been commended by the Nobel Committee for their years-long efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
In particular, the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were the group of survivors named “Nihon Hidankyo”, which the Nobel Committee says “contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo”.
What with Russia and Iran’s dangling of nuclear weapons over a terrified world, this serves as a symbol of acknowledgement for their suffering and a warning against maleficent uses of human intelligence. But commentators point out that it was a politically neutrally move in a year dominated by strife in the Middle East.
Founded in 1956, a decade after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the organization sends survivors around the world to share their testimonies of the “atrocious damage” and suffering caused by the use of nuclear weapons.
It was Japan’s surrender that ended World War Two.
Next year will be 80 years since the event.
The now-surviving members of the group were small children or teenagers at the time of the atomic bombing, but have carried the trauma their entire lives, after having seen so many people, including close friends and family members, die before their eyes in 1945. They were forced to bury them themselves, and many lived with chronic health problems.
They will receive a diploma, a gold medal and a sum of one million dollars.
