Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo wins Nobel Peace Prize 2024

Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Nobel Peace Prize 2024 has been awarded to Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, the Swedish Academy announced on Friday (October 11, 2024).

The Nobel Committee said that Nihon Hidankyo was 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.

Nihon Hidankyo is the only nation-wide organization of A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Hibakusha). It has member organizations in all 47 Japanese prefectures, thus representing almost all organized Hibakusha. Hidankyo is cooperating with those organizations in their work for the defense of the living and rights of these people.

One of the main objectives of Hindankyo is prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, including the signing of an international agreement for a total ban and elimination of nuclear weapons.

A photo dated September 1945 of the remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. The Nobel Peace Prize was on October 11, 2024 awarded to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha.
| Photo Credit:
AFP

Last year, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to to Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, who is currently imprisoned. In 2014, India’s Kailash Satyarthi had won the award jointly with Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai.

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Earlier this week, the Swedish Academy announced the winners of the 2024 Nobel prizes for Physics, Chemistry and Physiology/Medicine, followed by the Literature award on Thursday (October 10, 2024) which was bagged by the first South Korean winner Han Kang.

The final Economics award will on October 14.

The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($ 1 million) from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to accept their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.