Nihon Hidankyo awarded Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to achieve nuclear-free world

Nihon Hidankyo, an atomic bomb survivors group based in Hiroshima and Nagasaki prefectures, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons — the first time in 50 years that a Japanese recipient has been awarded the prize.

Joergen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said it awarded the organization with the honor for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

“The extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo,” said Frydnes. “It is therefore alarming that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.”