‘This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as hibakusha, is receiving the peace prize 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.’
Nobel Prize Committee, awarding the peace prize on 11 October 2024
There's been little coverage of the Nobel Prize committee's decision to award its Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese atom bomb survivors group, as if this decision was little more than remembrance of their suffering eighty years ago. Let's hope that national leaders will understand its real purpose: a deeply significant warning to national leaders who have nuclear weapons at their disposal, and to those who are intent on joining that nuclear ‘club’, not to contemplate their use in any circumstances.
Five countries were considered nuclear weapon states under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China. Other states that possess nuclear weapons are India, Pakistan and North Korea, and Israel is generally understood to have them as well; meanwhile Iran is thought to be close to joining this group of nations.
With such major conflicts now taking place in both Russia/Ukraine and the Middle East, the clear understanding that nuclear weapons are not to be used — what the Nobel committee referred to as a ‘taboo’ — is under real threat: their quote is, ‘It is alarming that today this taboo is under pressure’.
One can envisage several scenarios which underpin their concern: the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons in either of the current conflicts or those yet to emerge, or a ‘backs against the wall’ scenario where the continued existence of a small country was in threat. Either way, it's a slippery slope to a much more serious situation.
In these commentaries we often call for real and practical initiatives for peace-making, but the Nobel committee is absolutely correct in drawing our attention to the bigger picture which could threaten the very continuation of humanity.
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