Announcing the winner of this year's award in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the grassroots group had helped lead a global movement that has "worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons."
"Understanding the devastating effects of the use of nuclear weapons is the first step toward achieving their abolition, and the unwavering efforts, actions, and movements of the hibakusha toward that goal are the source of strength for advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons," by Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki.
For nearly 70 years, Nihon Hidankyo has represented people who were in Hiroshima or Nagasaki at the time of the atomic attacks, as well as others who lived nearby and were affected by the radiation and nuclear fallout from the two bombs —still, the only atomic weapons ever used in a conflict.
As many as 140,000 people died as a result of the August 6 attack on Hiroshima, along with an estimated 70,000 in the raid on Nagasaki three days later. Tokyo announced its surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945.
Nihon Hidankyo was nominated for the award on two previous occasions, in 1985 and again in 1994. In 1974, Prime Minister Eisaku Sato won the prize after introducing Japan's three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, producing, or permitting nuclear weapons on the nation's territory.
Hibakusha, atomic bombing survivors, have been tirelessly exerting themselves toward a world free of nuclear weapons, with their only wish that no one else should go through the sufferings they have experienced.
Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Victims' Organizations, has been campaigning since August 1956 for more significant health care provisions for survivors of the attacks — known as "hibakusha," or "bomb-affected people" — as well as a blanket ban on the development and use of nuclear weapons.
Over time, that has grown into a "powerful international norm" that stigmatizes the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable, the committee said in a statement. "This norm has now become known as 'the nuclear taboo.'"
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