Image
 Japanese children deposit folded paper cranes they have brought to Hiroshima in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The cranes are a sign of hope and peace.

Japanese children deposit folded paper cranes they have brought to Hiroshima in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The cranes are a sign of hope and peace.

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It came as a big surprise when the Norwegian Nobel Committee on 11 October announced that the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo would receive the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024. This organization consisting of survivors of the nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 was founded in 1956. It is estimated that 120,000 died in and soon after the bombs exploded over Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki three days later. It is also estimated that 650,000 people survived the attacks. 

These survivors were called hibakusha (hit-explosion-person). In addition to all the physical and psychological effects they experienced in the months and years to come, they were not allowed to talk about it. Neither the American occupants of Japan (until 1952), nor the Japanese authorities wanted the realities of the nuclear disaster on human beings and on the environment in the area. Instead of putting the shame on those responsible for the war and for the dropping of the first two nuclear bombs, the shame was on the victims. They got little attention in their distress. People did not want to listen to their complaints, and they were left more or less without any support or compensation.

The aim of Nihon Hidankyo (hit-bomb-association), when it was founded in 1956 was firstly to promote the social and economic rights of all hibakusha.” But there was an objective number two: to ensure that no one ever again is subject to the catastrophe that befell the hibakusha.” And this was their endeavour for over seven decades. 

I lived in Japan for 12 years (between 1974 and 1989) and met hibakusha on several occasions. I have always been impressed by the intensity and communicative power in their sharing of their horrific past and the vision for a nuclear-weapon free world. The message is clear: No one must ever again go through what they have been through. No more Hiroshima. No more Nagasaki.

I am convinced that their stories have been an important contribution to the work for nuclear disarmament effort. Their testimonies have had an impact on world leaders as well as the peace movement. There has been a sort of practical taboo against the use of these kinds of weapons during the soon 80 years since they were used for the first and so far last time in a war situation.

Nihon Hidankyo deserves an international recognition for their impressive contribution. The hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” as the present chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, expressed it announcing the 2024 prize receivers in Oslo.

According to my knowledge, Nihon Hidankyo has been in the discussion of the committee at least for 30 years since it was nominated by the International Peace Bureau in 1994. The next year, in his introduction to the 1995 laureates, the Pugwash Conference, also an anti-nuclear institution named after a conference centre in Canada, mentioned the hibakusha and Nihon Hidankyo.

Let us remember the 1985 prize, awarded to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and in 2017, as we remember, ICAN received the prize. Let us also remember that the Japanese prime minister Sato Eisaku received the prize in 1974 because Japan had signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970. That was a great surprise too. Living in Japan myself at that time, the surprise was quite different from the surprise this year. Sato was not perceived as a peace crane in his international politics. Fifty years later the response is quite different. And we are looking forward to the celebration in Oslo in December.

The alarming fast is unfortunately that today the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure. The nuclear powers are modernising and upgrading their arsenals; new countries appear to be preparing to acquire nuclear weapons; and threats are being made to use nuclear weapons in ongoing warfare. As Mr Frydnes concluded: At this moment in human history, it is worth reminding ourselves what nuclear weapons are: the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen.”

The churches around the globe have been deeply concerned about the nuclear threat, and at the very first assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam 1948, it was stated that the indiscriminate destruction of atomic weapons and the part which war plays in our present (sic) international life, is a sin against God and a degradation of man.” 

In 2015 the WCC sent a pilgrimage delegation to the 70th commemoration in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The pilgrimage has not ended. Prayers and involvement on all levels are unfortunately still needed. 

The big issue today is not only to keep the taboo as not using the weapons, but more than ever the total prohibition of nuclear weapons. 

About the author :

Bishop emeritus Tor B Jørgensen is serving in the Church of Norway, Kinki Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

Disclaimer

The impressions expressed in the blog posts are the contributions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policies of the World Council of Churches.