Japanese atomic bomb survivors say Nobel Peace Prize gives fresh impetus to disarmament push

By MARI YAMAGUCHI The Associated Press

From left, Jiro Hamasumi, Terumi Tanaka and Michiko Kodama, representatives of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, attend a press conference at Japan National Press Club Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Eugene Hoshiko]

TOKYO (AP) — Survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki said receiving a Nobel Peace Prize has given them a fresh incentive to campaign for nuclear disarmament ahead of the 80th anniversary of the 1945 attacks.

“I felt like I needed to work even harder on what I had done so far,” said Terumi Tanaka, who survived the atomic attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9. 1945.

Tanaka, 92, was speaking at a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday after returning from Oslo where he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize award on behalf of Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ organization.

Next year marks “a significant milestone of 80 years” since the end of World War II, Tanaka, who is co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, said.

“I believe it is important to focus on the next 10 years and strengthen the movement moving forward,” he added. “I would like to lead a big movement of testimonials.”

Tanaka, a retired materials engineering professor, said he wants Japan to take the leadership in nuclear disarmament.

“What else is there for Japan, the only country to have suffered atomic attacks, to do other than leading the nuclear disarmament?”

That’s what Tanaka said he will ask Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who supports nuclear deterrence, when they are expected to meet in January. Japan, protected under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, has refused to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons despite repeated requests by survivors.

Michiko Kodama, who survived the first atomic bombing, on Hiroshima three days before the Nagasaki blast, said she felt the Nobel award and the congratulatory messages were so rewarding after decades of hardship, discrimination and fear of health effects from radiation, but she wants more people to know what nuclear weapons really do to them.

“We hibakusha (survivors) who saw the hell… within a decade won’t be around to tell the reality of the atomic bombing,” said Kodama, who was 7 in August 1945. “I want to keep telling our stories as long as we live.”

Nihon Hidankyo is a grassroots movement of Japanese atomic bombing survivors who have worked for nearly 70 years to maintain a taboo around the use of nuclear weapons. The weapons have grown exponentially in power and number since being used for the first and only time in warfare by the United States on Japan.

The first U.S. atomic bombing killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima. A second atomic attack on Nagasaki killed another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing an end to a conflict that began with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 during its attempt to conquer Asia.