Nobel Peace Prize Winner
“It felt like seeing the light”. Teruko Yahata, an 87-year-old atomic bomb survivor says. Yohata was reacting on Saturday (October 12) about Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo winning the Nobel Peace Prize felt like seeing the light.
Hiroshima To…
Yahata was eight when she witnessed the nuclear destruction of her hometown of Hiroshima. Then she started traveling the world in 2013 to tell her story. And now she feels an even greater sense of mission to spread the word around the world. She also acknowledged that the timing of the award was very meaningful, given soaring tensions around the world.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize on Friday (October 11) to Nihon Hidankyo. Nihon represents survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Atomic Bomb
The organisation’s co-chair, Toshiyuki Mimaki said he felt the award meant more responsibility. He added that most atomic bomb survivors were over 85 years old. What he actually meas is that the challenge lies in what to do in the future.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation the group 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”.
Leaders of the group of atomic bomb survivors awarded the Nobel Peace Prize warned on Saturday that the risk of nuclear war was rising, renewing their call to abolish nuclear weapons.
“The international situation is getting progressively worse, and now wars are being waged as countries threaten the use of nuclear weapons,” said Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the 1945 U.S. bombing of Nagasaki and co-head of the Nihon Hidankyo group.
“I fear that we as humankind are on the path to self-destruction. The only way to stop that is to abolish nuclear,” he said.
Survivors Of Nuclear Weapons
In awarding the survivors, the Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted the devastation of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese group’s decades-long work to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The group’s endeavours have critical importance in the world today, the committee said. It did not specify any countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled last month that Moscow would consider responding with nuclear weapons if the U.S. and its allies allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range Western missiles.
(With Reuters Inputs)
