Nihon Hidankyo’s path to Nobel Peace Prize, Part 1: Organization founded on sentiment, “We can no longer remain silent”
Dec. 1, 2024
by Michio Shimotaka and Hiromi Morita, Staff Writers
On December 10, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), the only nationwide organization for the survivors (hibakusha) of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, will be honored at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway. The Nihon Hidankyo organization was established 11 years after the bombings. The organization’s members have testified about the horrors of the atomic bombings, etched deeply into their bodies and minds, and called for the elimination of nuclear weapons to the international community, saying “hibakusha must never again be created.” In this series of articles, the Chugoku Shimbun will trace the 68-year journey of the Nihon Hidankyo organization.
A-bomb survivors stand up
Shizuko Abe, 97, lives a quiet life in Hiroshima City’s Minami Ward. Ms. Abe has become one of the few A-bomb survivors who can speak about the period when Nihon Hidankyo was first founded. “I cannot express how grateful I was to find a place where people with the same scars could comfort and encourage each other,” she said.
On the night of August 10, 1956, the second day of the second World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, held in Nagasaki City, Nihon Hidankyo came into being along with its “Message to the World” at a national convention that drew A- and H-bomb sufferers from around Japan to the Nagasaki International Culture Hall.
“Up until now, we have kept our silence, hid our faces, scattered ourselves and led our lives that were left to us, but now, unable to keep our mouths shut, we are rising up, joining our hands,” read the message. Ms. Abe was one of around 800 A-bomb survivors who attended the convention from throughout Japan. Because the atomic bombing caused burns to her face and hands when she was an 18-year-old newlywed, she has suffered discrimination by others.
Survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. military in August 1945, carried physical and psychological wounds but were overlooked by Japanese society, which was focused on economic recovery. An early hibakusha organization called The Rehabilitation Group for A-bomb Survivors was formed in 1951. The organization was made up of around 30 survivors, including Kiyoshi Kikkawa, the owner of souvenir shop located next to the present-day A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward who died in 1986.
Participants share their concerns
Fumie Takahashi, 87, a resident of Hiroshima Nishi Ward who worked at Mr. Kikkawa’s shop around 1952, said, “They must have worked so hard to increase their friends one by one even as some were hiding their experiences in the atomic bombing.” The group’s members shared their concerns and sought improvements in their lives. Ms. Abe also worked to deepen her friendship with Mr. Kikkawa and others.
In March 1954, the crewmembers of a Japanese fishing boat were exposed to radiation from a hydrogen bomb test that the United States had conducted on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. A signature drive in the pursuit of a ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs spread from Suginami, Tokyo to other regions in Japan, leading to the first World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, which took place in Hiroshima City in August 1955.
Along with other survivors, Akihiro Takahashi, Ms. Takahashi’s husband, who later became director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and died in 2011, recounted their experiences in the atomic bombings at the world conference. Yuko Murato, who died in 2022, said in her remarks at the conference, “I am filled with the feeling that such a disastrous fate should never be created for anyone ever again,” receiving great applause. Ms. Murato said quietly, “I am happy to have survived.”
Inspired by the conference, other survivors began to form local associations in different parts of Japan. In Nagasaki, the other A-bombed city, an association of women who survived the Nagasaki A-bombing began full-scale activities in 1955.
Chieko Watanabe, one of the women’s association members who died in 1993, experienced the atomic bombing at the age of 16 in a factory where she had been mobilized to work. She was paralyzed from the waist down after being trapped under the destroyed building. She was bedridden in a room at the back of her home, which faced a bustling street. In fear that she might commit suicide, her family apparently made an effort not to place knives near her. Nobuhiro Watanabe, 69, Ms. Watanabe’s nephew and a resident of Nagasaki City who lived with her later, said, “She must have felt nothing but despair at that time.”
When her situation was reported in a newspaper, women in similar situations would come to visit her. On August 9, 1956, Ms. Watanabe appeared on stage at the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs held in her city. While in her mother’s arms, she revealed herself. “Please look at my miserable appearance,” she said and called for a ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs.
Small groups come together
In that same year, the Hiroshima Hidankyo organization was established in May, and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council was formed in June. On August 10, those small groups of survivors joined together to form the national Nihon Hidankyo organization, led by among others Heiichi Fujii, a survivor who lost his father and younger sister in the Hiroshima atomic bombing who died in 1996.
“We hereby reaffirm our pledge to save humanity from its crisis through our experiences,” was a sentiment written by Ichiro Moritaki, who was selected to serve as co-chair of the new organization and died in 1994. Mr. Moritaki fine-tuned the declaration that he had originally drafted for the Conference of A-bomb Sufferers in Hiroshima Prefecture in March, and read it aloud in both Japanese and English as the “Message to the World” for Nihon Hidankyo. On the stage on which he stood were slogans relating to the prohibition of atomic and hydrogen bombs and national compensation for victims.
(Originally published on December 1, 2024)
On December 10, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), the only nationwide organization for the survivors (hibakusha) of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, will be honored at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway. The Nihon Hidankyo organization was established 11 years after the bombings. The organization’s members have testified about the horrors of the atomic bombings, etched deeply into their bodies and minds, and called for the elimination of nuclear weapons to the international community, saying “hibakusha must never again be created.” In this series of articles, the Chugoku Shimbun will trace the 68-year journey of the Nihon Hidankyo organization.
A-bomb survivors stand up
Shizuko Abe, 97, lives a quiet life in Hiroshima City’s Minami Ward. Ms. Abe has become one of the few A-bomb survivors who can speak about the period when Nihon Hidankyo was first founded. “I cannot express how grateful I was to find a place where people with the same scars could comfort and encourage each other,” she said.
On the night of August 10, 1956, the second day of the second World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, held in Nagasaki City, Nihon Hidankyo came into being along with its “Message to the World” at a national convention that drew A- and H-bomb sufferers from around Japan to the Nagasaki International Culture Hall.
“Up until now, we have kept our silence, hid our faces, scattered ourselves and led our lives that were left to us, but now, unable to keep our mouths shut, we are rising up, joining our hands,” read the message. Ms. Abe was one of around 800 A-bomb survivors who attended the convention from throughout Japan. Because the atomic bombing caused burns to her face and hands when she was an 18-year-old newlywed, she has suffered discrimination by others.
Survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. military in August 1945, carried physical and psychological wounds but were overlooked by Japanese society, which was focused on economic recovery. An early hibakusha organization called The Rehabilitation Group for A-bomb Survivors was formed in 1951. The organization was made up of around 30 survivors, including Kiyoshi Kikkawa, the owner of souvenir shop located next to the present-day A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward who died in 1986.
Participants share their concerns
Fumie Takahashi, 87, a resident of Hiroshima Nishi Ward who worked at Mr. Kikkawa’s shop around 1952, said, “They must have worked so hard to increase their friends one by one even as some were hiding their experiences in the atomic bombing.” The group’s members shared their concerns and sought improvements in their lives. Ms. Abe also worked to deepen her friendship with Mr. Kikkawa and others.
In March 1954, the crewmembers of a Japanese fishing boat were exposed to radiation from a hydrogen bomb test that the United States had conducted on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. A signature drive in the pursuit of a ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs spread from Suginami, Tokyo to other regions in Japan, leading to the first World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, which took place in Hiroshima City in August 1955.
Along with other survivors, Akihiro Takahashi, Ms. Takahashi’s husband, who later became director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and died in 2011, recounted their experiences in the atomic bombings at the world conference. Yuko Murato, who died in 2022, said in her remarks at the conference, “I am filled with the feeling that such a disastrous fate should never be created for anyone ever again,” receiving great applause. Ms. Murato said quietly, “I am happy to have survived.”
Inspired by the conference, other survivors began to form local associations in different parts of Japan. In Nagasaki, the other A-bombed city, an association of women who survived the Nagasaki A-bombing began full-scale activities in 1955.
Chieko Watanabe, one of the women’s association members who died in 1993, experienced the atomic bombing at the age of 16 in a factory where she had been mobilized to work. She was paralyzed from the waist down after being trapped under the destroyed building. She was bedridden in a room at the back of her home, which faced a bustling street. In fear that she might commit suicide, her family apparently made an effort not to place knives near her. Nobuhiro Watanabe, 69, Ms. Watanabe’s nephew and a resident of Nagasaki City who lived with her later, said, “She must have felt nothing but despair at that time.”
When her situation was reported in a newspaper, women in similar situations would come to visit her. On August 9, 1956, Ms. Watanabe appeared on stage at the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs held in her city. While in her mother’s arms, she revealed herself. “Please look at my miserable appearance,” she said and called for a ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs.
Small groups come together
In that same year, the Hiroshima Hidankyo organization was established in May, and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council was formed in June. On August 10, those small groups of survivors joined together to form the national Nihon Hidankyo organization, led by among others Heiichi Fujii, a survivor who lost his father and younger sister in the Hiroshima atomic bombing who died in 1996.
“We hereby reaffirm our pledge to save humanity from its crisis through our experiences,” was a sentiment written by Ichiro Moritaki, who was selected to serve as co-chair of the new organization and died in 1994. Mr. Moritaki fine-tuned the declaration that he had originally drafted for the Conference of A-bomb Sufferers in Hiroshima Prefecture in March, and read it aloud in both Japanese and English as the “Message to the World” for Nihon Hidankyo. On the stage on which he stood were slogans relating to the prohibition of atomic and hydrogen bombs and national compensation for victims.
(Originally published on December 1, 2024)
