Nihon Hidankyo co-president Toshiyuki Mimaki was surprised to learn that his organization received the Nobel Peace Prize
Text: RFI
The Nobel Peace Prize went this Friday to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, which brings together survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, “for their efforts in favor of a world without nuclear weapons.”
The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, founded in 1956, received the reward this Friday “for its efforts in favor of a world without nuclear weapons and for having demonstrated, through testimonies, that nuclear weapons should never be used again,” declared the president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes.
Nihon Hidankyo co-president Toshiyuki Mimaki was surprised to learn that his organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I never dreamed this could happen,” he declared excitedly.
The president of the Nobel Committee considered it “alarming” that the “veto on the use of nuclear weapons” that was generated in response to the atomic bombings of August 1945 is now “under pressure.”
BREAKING NEWS
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2024 #NobelPeacePrize to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the peace prize for its… pic.twitter.com/YVXwnwVBQO— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 11, 2024
«This year’s award is an award that focuses on the need to defend this nuclear veto. And we all have a responsibility, particularly the nuclear powers,” Frydnes told reporters.
*Read also: South Korean Han Kang receives the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
Gaza is “like Japan 80 years ago,” warns Nobel-winning organization
Mimaki considered that the current situation in the Gaza Strip is similar to that of Japan devastated by bombs at the end of World War II.
«In Gaza, bloodied children are detained. “It’s like Japan 80 years ago,” he declared during a press conference in Tokyo, adding that the idea that nuclear weapons bring peace is a fallacy.
«It has been said that thanks to nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists,” he said.
«For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, or Israel against Gaza, it will not end there. Politicians should know these things,” Mimaki insisted.
Last year, Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned in her country, was awarded the prestigious award for her fight against women’s oppression in Iran.
The award will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
The Nobel Peace Prize is the only prize awarded in Oslo, while the rest of the disciplines are announced in Stockholm.
The award is accompanied by a gold medal, a diploma and a check for one million dollars.
Post Views: 13
