A-bomb survivors meet fundraising target to attend Nobel prize ceremony

Dozens of members of Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading group of atomic bomb survivors that won this year's Nobel Peace Prize, are set to travel to Oslo next month to attend the award ceremony after achieving its crowdfunding target of 10 million yen to help cover travel expenses.

The group, also known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, met its goal in just one day after launching the appeal Nov 15 but will continue its online campaign through Dec. 15, saying it intends to allocate surplus funds toward its efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.

As the Norwegian Nobel Committee is only paying for three representatives of Hidankyo to attend the ceremony, the group opted to raise funds for other members through crowdfunding.

The group said it will not use the 11 million krona ($1 million) award money to cover the expenses of the members attending.

A total of 31 atomic bomb survivors and others are expected to participate in the ceremony in Norway's capital on Dec. 10, with each participant's flight and accommodation fees estimated to total around 500,000 yen.

"This will be an opportunity to reiterate our message that there should never be another atomic bomb survivor," said Jiro Hamasumi, an assistant secretary general of the group.

The group, founded in 1956, won the prize "for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again," according to the Nobel committee.

U.S. atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final days of World War II in August 1945, killing an estimated 214,000 people by the end of the year and leaving numerous survivors grappling with long-term health and mental challenges.

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