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A grassroots anti-nuclear weapons organization from Japan has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Its members are survivors of the August 1945 U.S. nuclear bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Nobel Committee said the organization has helped create a taboo against the use of nuclear weapons, one that is threatened today. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
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JORGEN WATNE FRYDNES: ...To the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo...
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: When the news reached anti-nuclear weapons organization Nihon Hidankyo that they just won this year's Nobel Peace Prize, there was astonishment and tears of joy. Never did I dream this could happen, said the organization's co-head and Hiroshima survivor Toshiyuki Mimaki. It can't be real. Nobel Committee Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said the group, founded in 1956, has been instrumental in creating a post-World War II taboo against nuclear weapons.
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FRYDNES: These historical witnesses have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories.
BEARDSLEY: Nobel Peace Prize watchers were expecting an award linked to one of the many wars currently raging across the planet. Frydnes said Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan were top of mind when the Nobel Committee made its decision.
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FRYDNES: When we look at the developments and the conflicts around the world, we see how crucial it is to uphold a nuclear taboo.
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HARRY TRUMAN: A short time ago, an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy.
BEARDSLEY: That's President Harry Truman breaking the news to the American people on August 6, 1945. The atom bombs ended World War II but caused death and horrific suffering and destruction. It's the last time nuclear weapons have been used in conflict, but the Nobel Committee said the nearly 80-year taboo is under pressure.
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FRYDNES: The nuclear powers are modernizing and upgrading their arsenals. New countries appear to be preparing to acquire nuclear weapons. And threats are being made to use nuclear weapons as part of ongoing warfare.
BEARDSLEY: It was a clear message to Iran, who many believe is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb, and North Korea, which is pushing to expand its nuclear arsenal, and Russia, where Vladimir Putin recently lowered the threshold for when it would launch a nuclear attack. NATO has also announced a major nuclear exercise just next week. The Nobel Committee's Frydnes said Nihon Hidankyo and its crucial witnesses to nuclear destruction will soon no longer be among us.
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FRYDNES: But with a strong culture of remembrance and continued commitment, new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses.
BEARDSLEY: A hundred and twenty thousand people were killed in the nuclear bombs in 1945.
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FRYDNES: But today's nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power.
BEARDSLEY: The Nobel Committee says they could kill millions and would impact the climate catastrophically. Simply put, nuclear war would destroy civilization.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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