Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Japan's Nihon Hidankyo for Leading Efforts to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

On Friday, October 11, another Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organization comprised of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This movement emerged after the devastating atomic bombings in August 1945.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award, stating, "This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors, known as Hibakusha, is being recognized for its commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. Their witness testimonies emphasize the urgent message that nuclear weapons should never be used again."

The Nobel announcements kicked off on Monday with the medicine prize going to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun. The physics prize was awarded on Tuesday to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, who are regarded as pioneers in machine learning. Wednesday brought the chemistry prize for David Baker, awarded half for "computational protein design," while the other half was jointly awarded to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper for their work in "protein structure prediction." On Thursday, South Korean author Han Kang was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature for her remarkable poetic prose.

Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, claiming an additional 70,000 lives. In the years that followed, radiation from both blasts caused the deaths of tens of thousands more in both cities.

Friday's award marks the 105th Nobel Peace Prize since its inception in 1901. Japan's Nihon Hidankyo, the 141st laureate, will receive a cash prize of approximately $1 million.

The Nobel Committee stated that its decision is “firmly rooted” in Alfred Nobel’s will, which sets out three key criteria for the award: “promoting fraternity between nations, reducing or abolishing standing armies, and advancing peace congresses.”

Although Nobel’s will predates the creation of nuclear weapons, the Nobel Peace Prize has previously recognized individuals and organizations dedicated to nuclear disarmament. In 2017, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons received the honor. Similarly, in 1995, the award was shared by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and physicist Joseph Rotblat, who famously left the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos for ethical reasons.

The Nobel Prizes, awarded each year by the Swedish Academy, come with a monetary reward of 11 million Swedish crowns, equivalent to about $1.1 million.

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