Nobel Peace Prize 2024 Honors Atomic Bomb Survivors

The world is going through war crises and with each passing day, it becomes uglier and uglier. There seems to be no stopping of it rather than engulfing the other stake holders to be part of it willingly and unwillingly. In such a scenario, Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize 2024 to Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, working strongly by the support of a bunch of nuclear bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the first atom bomb was dropped by the USA in August 1945. The Nobel Peace Committee justifies its award to underscore the impact of nuclear warfare and emphasize on the growing need for the disarmament and global peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted last month during a press conference that if the West would support Ukraine to attack Russia with conventional ballistic missiles, then Russia would not hesitate to consider the options of nuclear weapons. In the same breadth, North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un also said to speed up the proliferation of nuclear weapons in order to become the superpower armed with nuclear weapons.

Considering the present intricacies of international politics, which is about to be decentralized from the unipolar to the bipolar or tripolar world, the importance of the peace prize is getting bigger and better. The survivors of the first world war are known as "Hibakusha," who witnessed unimaginable horrors and devastating effects of nuclear bombs. Presenting the Nobel Peace Prize to this group would intensify the moral imperative to remember the past and prevent the future from meeting the same tragic and horrifying incidents.

Hibakusha has effortlessly been working for years to make the world free from the devastating nuclear weapons. The Peace Prize will definitely remind the world about the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war. Amidst the rising tensions in many regions, the Nobel Peace Prize will initiate dialogues and discussions to encourage the nations to consider and reconsider the nuclear policies through meaningful discussions to reduce the arsenals," professed the Nobel committee.

Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki, a survivor of the Holocaust, expressed his emotions after receiving the award in a press conference from the original site of Hiroshima, where an atom bomb was exploded on August 6, 1945: “It’s a surreal feeling for us, but at the same time, it will force the world to think about the nuclear disarmament in order to make this planet peaceful for living organisms.”

The recognition of Hibakusha reinforces the idea that humanity has a collective responsibility to prevent the recurrence of such atrocities. It challenges all the governments of the world to prioritize diplomatic solutions over military ones.

By elevating the voices of atomic bomb survivors, the award empowers them as key figures in the peace movement. Their testimonies can inspire future generations to advocate for a world without nuclear weapons.This prize encourages international solidarity against the prospect of nuclear war at a time when tensions are widening. It urges international unanimity in order to resolve shared problems through collaboration as opposed to hostilities.