Nihon Hidankyo, a group of survivors of the atomic bombs in Japan, won its Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday and called on nations to ban the weapons, which are still a threat eight decades after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Terumi Tanaka, 92, a survivor of Nagasaki and one of the three co-chairs of Nihon Hidankyo who accepted the prize, called for “action from governments to achieve” a world free of nuclear weapons. At a time when nations like Russia, which possesses the greatest nuclear arsenal in the world, are increasingly threatening to use atomic weapons, the medal was given out at a solemn ceremony held in Oslo’s City Hall.
Tanaka said, “I am infinitely saddened and angered that the ‘nuclear taboo’ threatens to be broken,” to the dignitaries and visitors in attendance, some dressed in Japanese kimonos or traditional Norwegian bunads
To win the war in Ukraine and discourage the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons on multiple occasions. In mid-November, he signed an order lowering the threshold for using atomic weapons.
The Russian army demonstrated a new hypersonic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead in a raid on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro a few days later. However, this time it fired a standard payload. Nihon Hidankyo uses the testimonials of “hibakusha,” or survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to support his persistent efforts to rid the earth of WMDs.
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