Nobel Peace Prize 2024 Goes To Japanese Atom Bomb Survivors' Group

Nobel Peace Prize 2024 is going to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organisation representing Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, for its efforts towards nuclear disarmament and abolition of nuclear weapons.

Nobel Peace Prize 2024: The Norwegian Nobel Committee for Peace announced on Friday that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 will be given to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organisation working for the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing. 

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2024 #NobelPeacePrize to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the peace prize 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," the Nobel Prize X handle posted.

"Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of witness accounts, issued resolutions and public appeals, and sent annual delegations to the United Nations and a variety of peace conferences to remind the world of the pressing need for nuclear disarmament," the Nobel Committee said in a press release.

This is the 105th Nobel Peace Prize to have been awarded since 1901, and Nihon Hidankyo becomes the 142nd recipient. While a total of 111 individuals have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, as many as 19 of them are women. Several organisations have also been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the past  

What Is Nihon Hidankyo, And Who Are The Hibakusha?

Nihon Hidankyo, formally known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations, represents a coalition of survivors of nuclear bombings and nuclear weapons testing. Formed in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo has grown into the largest and most prominent association of Hibakusha — survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hibakusha, having endured indescribable physical and emotional pain, have shared their stories globally to illuminate the devastating human cost of nuclear warfare and to warn against the proliferation of such weapons. Their lived experiences powerfully underscore the “nuclear taboo”, a global moral opposition to nuclear weapons that has developed over nearly eight decades since the bombings, the Nobel Committee noted.

Through witness testimonies, public appeals, and advocacy in international forums, including annual delegations to the United Nations, Nihon Hidankyo has reinforced this nuclear taboo and called for disarmament. Their resilience, even amidst physical suffering, has kept alive a powerful anti-nuclear message that resonates globally, the committee said. 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Nihon Hidankyo the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, honouring its sustained efforts toward peace and nuclear disarmament. 

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About The Nobel Peace Prize

Established by Alfred Nobel’s last will, the Nobel Prize has been awarded annually since 1901, recognising excellence in various disciplines including Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace, and more recently Economic Sciences.   

According to the Nobel Prize website, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament on November 27, 1895, bequeathing a huge share of his fortune to a series of prizes, which came to be known as the Nobel Prizes. As described in the will, one part of it was to be dedicated to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. This was the Nobel Peace Prize that has been given from 1901.

This year's Nobel prizes have been announced for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace.

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is being awarded jointly to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on microRNA, while John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton are getting the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2024 for their "discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks".

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2024 has been awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John M. Jumper for their work on proteins, the "ingenious chemical tools" of life, while Literature Nobel has gone to South Korean author Han Kang "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. 

The Nobel Foundation collaborates with different organisations to select and reward the laureates — the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for Physics and Chemistry, Karolinska Institute for Medicine, Swedish Academy for Literature, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee for Peace.