The Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 was recently awarded to a Japanese organization called Nihon Hidankyo. This is a group of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Known by the term Hibakusha, these surviors have witnessed to the world for decades about the horrors of nuclear weapons. As we approach the 80th anniversary of the only use of nuclear weapons in history, these elderly witnesses warn us all of the personal and communal costs of war and the use of technology to inflict mass suffering and death. Their warnings are especially important at a time when nations with nuclear weapons are engaged in violent hostilities with each other in Russia’s war with Ukraine and the escalating violence surrounding the Israel-Gaza war. The first video posted below is a summary of this well deserved Peace Prize.
When the winner of the Peace Prize was announced, one of the survivors was filmed as he learned that his group was chosen to receive this prestigious international award. In his joy and amazement, he also made a clear connection between the destruction and suffering of August 1945 and the ongoing destruction and suffering in Gaza today, “The images of the children in Gaza covered with blood held by their parents remind me of Japan 80 years ago. Children lost their fathers in the war and lost their mothers with the nuclear bomb. They became orphans.” The second video posted below is an excerpt of his moving remarks.
Lifting up the personal and human toll of war is not an act of partisan politics or divisive ideologies. Rather it is a call to find ways to resolve differences and disputes apart from the inevitable dehumanizing of the other that comes with war. The witness and the warning of those who survived and suffered from the atomic bombings of 1945 not only deserve the Nobel Peace Prize but also the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”