ICAN Official Hails Nihon Hidankyo's Role in Int'l Society
Tokyo, Nov. 10 (Jiji Press)--Akira Kawasaki, a senior official of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, has praised the role being played by the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, in the international community.
Kawasaki, 55, a member of the International Steering Group of ICAN, said that Nihon Hidankyo members have "repeatedly testified about their experiences and increased, by using the most persuasive power, the understanding around the world for their pledge that nuclear weapons must be abolished."
Nihon Hidankyo has been named the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. ICAN was awarded the prestigious prize in 2017.
Japan is the only country attacked with nuclear weapons, with the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed by U.S. atomic bombs in August 1945 in the closing days of World War II.
Since around 1998, Kawasaki has been cooperating with Nihon Hidankyo, including for its executives' testimonies at international conferences. "At every nuclear arms-related conference, (Nihon Hidankyo executives) have expressed their opinions without hesitation, even when they faced representatives of nuclear weapons states. The importance of their grassroots testifying activities is at the core of the reason for the group's winning of the prize," he said.
The reason for Nihon Hidankyo being selected as the Nobel Peace Prize winner this year is that nuclear threats are rising in light of the situations in Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russia, and the Gaza Strip, where the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, Kawasaki noted.
But he also said, "The average age of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors has now topped 85, so there is a limit to what they can do," indicating that he thinks Nihon Hidankyo should have been awarded the prize a little earlier.
In a statement released about a month ago to announce its decision to give the 2024 prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that "new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses."
On this, Kawasaki said he understands that the committee is telling people in the next generation to do their best.
Kawasaki, together with Nihon Hidankyo members, is slated to attend the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony to be held in the Norwegian capital of Oslo in December.
"We'd like to once again convey (to the world) the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and increase the number of countries participating in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons," he said. "We plan to encourage the Japanese government to aim for ratifying the treaty," Kawasaki added.
Lawyer Masayoshi Naito, 74, who has been supporting Nihon Hidankyo since around 1977, such as through providing legal consultations, said, "Hibakusha have lived with fear that they and their relatives may die due to radiation sickness and with a sense of guilt that they are the only ones who survived (the atomic bombings)."
Many of them were driven into family breakdown or poverty, Naito said, noting that some vomited when they remembered the time of the atomic bombings.
He praised Nihon Hidankyo, saying that its members "have continued to say, 'We must not create hibakusha again,' while facing trauma, discrimination and prejudice."
"There is a risk of nuclear war, so we should again look at hibakusha's experiences of the atomic bombings," Naito said.
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