Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Atomic Bomb Survivors Movement

OSLO, Norway—The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo—a grassroots movement of hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, from Hiroshima and Nagasaki—for its efforts “to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”

In its Oct. 11, 2024, announcement, the Norwegian Nobel Committee acknowledged that no nuclear weapons had been used in war in nearly 80 years. It credited Nihon Hidankyo and hibakusha representatives for the unique role they played in raising awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons. Such efforts helped establish “the nuclear taboo,” a powerful international norm stigmatizing the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable.

With nuclear powers modernizing and upgrading their arsenals and new countries preparing to acquire nuclear weapons, the committee said it’s worth reminding ourselves what nuclear weapons are—“the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen.”

Masako Wada, a representative of Nihon Hidankyo and survivor of the Nagasaki bombing, told the Nobel Prize organization that the world is currently moving backward on nuclear disarmament.

“Rather than anger, I feel sorrow, and fear how deep humans will fall into the darkness,” she said. “We have to keep going forward to convey our wish, our hope to reject nuclear weapons. That’s our mission as hibakusha.”