2024 Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Japan’s Anti-Nuclear Movement ‘Nihon Hidankyo’

As global nuclear powers continue modernizing their arsenals and tensions rise over potential use of these devastating weapons, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organization of atomic bomb survivors. The group, comprised of survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has long advocated for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the Peace Prize laureates, praised Nihon Hidankyo for its relentless efforts to promote a world free from nuclear weapons. The committee stated that the organization has effectively demonstrated, through witness testimonies, that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

Nihon Hidankyo’s origins date back to the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which killed an estimated 120,000 people instantly and claimed many more lives due to radiation in the following years. In 1956, survivors of the bombings, known as Hibakusha, alongside victims of nuclear tests in the Pacific, formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations. This group later became Nihon Hidankyo, the largest and most influential organization representing atomic bomb survivors.

The Nobel Committee emphasized that over the decades, Nihon Hidankyo has played a pivotal role in raising awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. Through personal accounts and active participation in international forums, the Hibakusha have helped establish a global “nuclear taboo,” a moral opposition to the use of nuclear weapons.

In recognizing Nihon Hidankyo’s work, the committee paid tribute to the survivors who, despite their physical and emotional suffering, have chosen to use their experiences to foster peace and disarmament. The organization has sent delegations to the United Nations, participated in peace conferences, and issued countless public appeals to keep nuclear disarmament on the global agenda.

While no nuclear weapon has been used in warfare for nearly 80 years—a fact the committee called “encouraging”—it warned that today the nuclear taboo is under threat. With nuclear powers upgrading their arsenals and new countries seeking to acquire these weapons, the risk of nuclear conflict has reemerged in international discourse.

The committee noted the urgency of this issue as the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings approaches next year, underscoring the growing dangers posed by modern nuclear weapons, which are far more destructive than those used in 1945.

“The Hibakusha help us comprehend the unimaginable suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” the committee said, adding that Nihon Hidankyo’s work ensures that future generations will continue to carry forward the message of peace and nuclear disarmament.

In honoring Nihon Hidankyo, the Nobel Peace Prize recognizes not only the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also their ongoing legacy of advocacy in the global fight for a nuclear-free world.