For its “efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons”, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo on Friday (October 11). What is  Nihon Hidankyo? Why it has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize? What are Hibakusha’s testimonies? Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.

 

Knowledge Nugget: Nihon Hidankyo

Subject: International Relations & World History

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize 2024 to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo.

1. Nihon Hidankyo received the award 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”, as stated by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in its citation.

2. The members of Nihon Hidankyo are survivors of the atom bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in 1945. Many of those who survived — the so-called “Hibakusha” or “bomb-affected people” — spearheaded the global movement to end nuclear weapons.

3. The Hibakusha has played an important role in a global movement for nuclear disarmament. Founded on August 10, 1956, Nihon Hidankyo describes itself as “the only nation-wide organisation of A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Its main objectives are the welfare of the Hibakusha, the elimination of nuclear weapons and due compensation to the victims.

4. The Nobel Committee emphasised on Hibakusha’s testimonies which have raised “awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons”.

5. Amid widespread conflict across the globe, the Norwegian Nobel Committee asserted that this year’s award signifies upholding of a norm known as “the nuclear taboo”, wrote in its press release.

6. The work of organisations such as Nihon Hidankyo have helped establish the nuclear taboo, which has ensured that nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945. One of the reasons behind the Nobel Committee’s decision this year is that this taboo is now “under pressure”.

7. Notably, this year’s recipients are the latest in a list of Nobel awardees who have worked for nuclear disarmament and arms control. At least 10 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded for the cause since 1901. For example, 

– In 2017, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the peace prize for drawing attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of them.

????India’s Kailash Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 sharing it with Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel laureate, for their work on promoting child rights in the troubled sub-continent.

– Latin America has been a nuclear-weapons-free zone since 1967. Alfonso García Robles played a defining role in shaping the Treaty of Tlatlelolco signed by 14 countries and was awarded the peace prize in 1982.

8. Last year, Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace 2023 “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”

1. On August 6, 1945,  the US dropped a bomb named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. The destruction was unimaginable. The US government’s Manhattan Project website said, “Those closest to the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to black char… Nearly every structure within one mile of ground zero was destroyed…” More than 70,000 people died instantly, with the death toll going beyond 100,000 later.

2. Then, on August 9, before the scale of the destruction could even be comprehended, the US dropped “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, killing at least 40,000 people instantly, and tens of thousands more in the days and weeks to come.

3. The United States’ decision to drop the bombs has since been criticised from both strategic and ethical perspectives, given its immense human cost. But the bombings forever changed the world, as major powers went on a race to develop their own nuclear weapons as a deterrent to the American one. In response, a global movement for nuclear disarmament emerged.

1. The Nobel Prize for Literature 2024 has been awarded to South Korean author Han Kang “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”, the Nobel Academy said on Thursday (October 10).

2. Interestingly, Han Kang is the first South Korean writer to win the award, according to the Nobel Press Conference.

3. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded by the Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden. Only four times in the history of the literature prize has it been shared between multiple people.

4. Notably, last year, Jon Fosse won the prestigious honour. The Nobel Literature Committee hailed the Norwegian author of plays, novels, and children’s books for giving “voice to the unsayable”.

5. Previously, the prize has been awarded to French author Annie Ernaux (2022), Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021), American poet and essayist Louise Glück ( 2020) and Austrian writer Peter Handke ( 2019).

(Sources: Nobel Peace Prize 2024 (IE), Nobel Peace Prize (IE), Nobel Prize in Literature for 2024(IE)

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