Japanese survivor of atomic bomb recalls its horrors in Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech

The horror they face not only because they hit by that attack, they also faced discrimination from Japanese people, because those victims were considered radiated or infectious by Japanese people.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan%27s-a-bomb-survivors-from-discrimination-to-a-nobel

This is all funded propagandas for geopolitics. If they were sincerely of anti nuclear weapons, they should pressure their own Japanese government to sign NPT, the treaty of nuclear test ban !

I think this was actually a smart choice for the peace prize, as it shines a light on an interesting phenomenon. Like the man said, the current nuclear powers show no interest in giving up their weapons, and that's even after we know what such weapons can do.

If nuclear weapons were still theoretical and had never been used, then there might be an argument for keeping them as a deterrent, but there is visual evidence of their use.

Even with that, certain countries insist on keeping them, and among those, some even allude to using them.

So while the anti-nuclear group deserve the recognition in their own right, this also does a good job in pointing out that no small percentage of the world is still fine with the idea of massive destruction, including (by extension) the possibility of themselves being victims of said destruction.

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israel makes 10.

To stop nukes from being used, never try to take over the world. Seems like a easy thing to understand.

80 years ago Russia was not a nuclear power.

elephant200Today  07:12 am JST

This is all funded propagandas for geopolitics. If they were sincerely of anti nuclear weapons, they should pressure their own Japanese government to sign NPT, the treaty of nuclear test ban !

The treaty does nothing to stop anything, worthless piece of paper and waste of time of everyone involved. When push comes to shove, these useless treaties are first out the window.

We have a very close friend who is a survivor of Nagasaki but he never talks about it.

This is the first time in a long time that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a deserving entity.

It should be a requirement of every world leader to visit the Peace Museum in Hiroshima.

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What was particularly impressive about Tanaka's speech was he felt no reluctance to condemn the Japanese Govts for their lack of attention to the Hibakusha. Must have made a few dignitaries squirm.

His actual words in English -

"...In December 1994, the “Law Concerning Relief to Atomic Bomb Survivors” (A-Bomb Survivors Relief Law) was enacted, combining the former two laws. However, no compensation was provided for the hundreds of thousands of deaths, and to this day the Japanese government has consistently refused to provide State compensation, limiting its measures to radiation damage only....."

Obama said that hell from the sky. He should have said “bombs were dropped by US war planes”.

Obama said that hell from the sky. He should have said “bombs were dropped by US war planes”.

Do not forget the rest: “bombs were dropped by US war planes” on civilians population, included children .

That concern drove the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award this year's prize to the Japanese organization,

So the russia card got them the nobel prize, this committe is as political as it gets..

Even as the dignified Nobel ceremony is taking place, the ongoing genocidal destruction of human life continues in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen at the hands of today's US governing class who are demonstrating the same cold ruthlessness, lack of humanity and utter disregard for human life that brought that nuclear horror into the world: two days that will live in infamy. Sociopaths still rule over us.

never forget WHO have dropped these bombs.

@dobre vam zajebava

never forget WHO have dropped these bombs.

Americans' hands were forced by Imperial Japanese high command that implemented Operation Gyokusai, turning every Japanese citizens, including school children and the elderly, into Kamikaze bombers to fight to the last man in order to force the US into a ceasefire.

Those two nukes saved at least 5 million Japanese civilians' lives.

Yes, the atomic bombings were a terrible thing but let’s not lose perspective on why they happened. The Japanese imperial army was a relentless force that killed millions throughout Asia and the pacific. They massacred more people in one attack on Hangin than both atomic bombs put together. Japan was the aggressor not the victim.

the atomic bombings were a terrible thing 

Agreed. If the bomb was not dropped they would have kept on fighting. The Japanese did horrible things during the war. That needs to be acknowledged by the Japanese.

Japanese survivor of US atomic bomb recalls its horrors in Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

Better headline and more accuarte one.

Life is a precious gift. Human beings killing fellow human beings is a savage act. Modern people need to give up their savage mindsets in the 21st century and beyond. Long live humanity.

the earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal.

elephant200Today  07:12 am JST

This is all funded propagandas for geopolitics. If they were sincerely of anti nuclear weapons, they should pressure their own Japanese government to sign NPT, the treaty of nuclear test ban !

You are completely WRONG. They have been against the Japanese government for not signing the NPT.

Before leaving such a thoughtless and fake comment, you should have investigated what they have done for years in detail, especially when you talk about such a sensitive matter.

@sakurasaki

they also faced discrimination from Japanese people, because those victims were considered radiated or infectious by Japanese people

Cant go blaming the horrors of war for that one.

Just add it to the long list of things the Japanese choose to persecute each other over.

While I respect the work of Hidankyo in working for the abolition of nuclear weapons, there is a small, nasty bit of Us-versus-Them in the Japanese media's narrative about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It can be summarized in the comment I made on another online site, shown below:

"A number of historians after 1945 have described how energetic and determined the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy both were in trying to develop nuclear bombs. Our knowledge of their equivalent(s) to the Manhattan Project is limited because much of their experimentation took place in North Korea, which soon after the war was closed to the outside world. But some writers speculate that at the war’s end, they had a functioning nuclear weapon. When you realize that Japan had far less natural resources and capital at its disposal than the US, their efforts were impressive.

Would the Japanese have used an atomic bomb or bombs against its enemies? Most certainly. I can’t believe that the perpetrators of the Rape of Nanjing and Unit 731 would have had any more reservations about using them than Truman had when he sanctioned the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

See especially: Robert K. Wilcox, Japan’s Secret War (New York: 2019)."

In fact, it's only a very discouraging event, and even the award winning organization has in reality reached nothing, to be exactly, less than nothing, despite the big efforts and decades long engagement the situation gets worse and worse. Lately, even the possibility of usage is again verbally present, for example by Putin and a new Kremlin atomic warfare doctrine. 79 years have now passed since the two atomic bombs and nothing has been learned from that, just nothing. Even worse, all those bombs are further produced in thousands, refurbished, replaced with newer ones, newly developed and upgraded, or some additional countries getting keen on getting their hands on some in future too.

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The debate in these comments is intensely polarized. I suppose there are good people on both sides.

AGREE

@Lindsay Today  11:12 am JST

Yes, the atomic bombings were a terrible thing but let’s not lose perspective on why they happened. The Japanese imperial army was a relentless force that killed millions throughout Asia and the pacific. They massacred more people in one attack on Hangin than both atomic bombs put together. Japan was the aggressor not the victim.

@Wasabi Today  09:12 am JST

Obama said that hell from the sky. He should have said “bombs were dropped by US war planes”.

Do not forget the rest: “bombs were dropped by US war planes” on civilians population, included children .

FINISH THE STORY: Because Japan attacked Asia first.

@Michael Machida

my grandma told me when the Americans bomb japan, she was dancing with joy.

the atomic bombings were a terrible thing

We all can agree with that.

Japan invaded other countries. Fact

Japanese learn this fact during their history studies at high school. Fact

The atomic bombings were indeed terrible, but I think it's difficult to agree on whether the actions were right or wrong. My Japanese mother-in-law said she felt relief at the bombings and subsequent surrender. (She also said she later felt guilty about those feelings, but she can't deny they were real.) I once met a Japanese man who was angry at the attention given to Hiroshima and Nagasaki when so little was paid to the firebombing of Tokyo where about 100,000 civilians were killed over two days. And how do we compare the horror of the killing of thousands from a single bomb to a single child being killed after stepping on a land mine?

I think the biggest concern was when other countries later developed atomic and nuclear bombs, and the risk of worldwide destruction appeared.

Whatever, war of any kind sucks.

Bring on the down votes, but do any of you really believe that the efforts of Nihon Hidankyo have made even an iota of difference on the issue of nuclear proliferation or actually contributed towards preventing the use of nuclear weapons in the last 79 years? Has this "taboo" that they've allegedly maintained around the use of nukes, for which they're being awarded the NPP, the reason none of the nuclear armed nations have used theirs in war since WWII? I feel that their activism has some value and cultural impact, but not nearly to the extent that the Nobel Committee is claiming.

SMHY so you get a certificate for surviving a bomb that was dropped on you that could have killed you.

Their Hibakusha history is also struggle against Japanese government who always try to trivialize victim or harm of radioactivity.

He described the efforts of survivors to use their experiences to try to abolish nuclear weapons for the sake of humanity, and to try to receive compensation from the Japanese state, which started the war, for their suffering.

I did not know about the compensation part. Interesting. You always learn something new about the war.