Nobel Peace Prize winner: ‘Young people must fight against nuclear weapons’

This article was last updated on December 10, 2024

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Nobel Peace Prize winner: ‘Young people must fight against nuclear weapons’

Young people must fight for a world without nuclear weapons, now that those weapons are many times more powerful than in the past. This was said by 92-year-old Terumi Tanaka, one of the chairmen of the Japanese anti-nuclear weapons organization Nihon Hidankyo, at the festive presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

Tanaka delivered the traditional Nobel Prize speech during the official ceremony in the Norwegian capital’s town hall, in front of around 1,000 attendees, including the Norwegian royal couple. His organization of survivors of the 1945 atomic attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, won the most important Nobel Prize this year.

“Any one of you can become a victim or a perpetrator at any time,” Tanaka told his audience. “Ten years from now, there may only be a handful of us who can provide testimonies as firsthand survivors. I hope the next generation will find ways to build on our efforts and advance the movement even further.”

Nihon Hidankyo campaigns for a world without nuclear weapons using witness testimonies. The average age of Japan’s atomic bomb survivors is now 85, Tanaka said.

Putin does not see danger

The three chairmen of Nihon Hidankyo have been in Oslo for several days and made themselves heard there yesterday. They said that Russian President Putin does not seem to understand the danger of nuclear weapons. “Nuclear weapons should never be used,” said Terumi Tanaka, who survived the nuclear attack on Nagasaki at the age of 13.

In August 1945, the US Air Force dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan to surrender in World War II. In Hiroshima this cost the lives of approximately 140,000 people. A few days later, some 74,000 people died in Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands more victims were later caused by radiation sickness and cancer.

Putin recently adjusted Russia’s nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. Nihon Hidankyo has been around since 1956 and is committed to a world without nuclear weapons.

Other awards in Stockholm

As always, all Nobel Prizes are awarded on December 10. The festive ceremony will begin around 4 p.m. in the Stockholm Concert Hall, where the other prize winners will receive their prestigious Nobel medals. The prizes were already awarded in October.