Prize for Peace

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, an organisation representing more than 300,000 survivors of the Hiroshima—Nagasaki bombings, known as the hibakusha in Japanese. By the time the US developed the bomb, in July 1945, Germany had already been defeated, and the Japanese Empire had been pushed all the way back to its home islands. The Japanese were retreating on every front. But America under Harry Truman decided to make experiments of the destructive power of bombs on the yellow people, not the white-men. Thus Germans were lucky to avoid the tragedy of the century.

On August 6, the Americans dropped a bomb named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. The destruction was unthinkable and unimaginable as well.” Those closest to the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to black char…. nearly every structure within one mile of ground zero was destroyed…”; more than 70,000 people died instantly, with death toll going beyond 100,000 later. Then on August 9, before the scale of the disaster could even be comprehended, the US dropped “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, killing at least 40,000 people instantly, and tens of thousands more in the days and weeks to come.

In his surrender speech Emperor Hirohitho said, “Should we continue to fight, not only it would result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilisation.” With deadly wars raging in different parts of the world, the very survival of the human race is in question. Today war is everywhere. The Russia-Ukraine war may go nuclear at any time. Then the recent escalation in the Middle East has every possibility of turning into nuclear as both Israel and Iran are ready to settle the score by using the ultimate weapons. Russia has been threatening right from the beginning of the war in 2022 that they won’t hesitate to use nukes in case they face an existential crisis. Surprisingly, critics in the West are dismissing Moscow’s threat as a nuclear bluff but they will have to eat their word if NATO-backed Ukrainian push inside Russia advances further.

For one thing, they have already nuclearised war in a limited way by using depleted uranium pellets in the Iraq war. And now Israel is reportedly using it extensively in Lebanon. Israel is not sparing even UN offices and staff. ‘Over 100 medics and emergency workers killed in Lebanon conflict’, UN rights office says. World Health Organisation Spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that since September 17, there had been 18 attacks on health facilities in Lebanon, killing 12 health workers.

This year there were 286 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize—197 individuals and 89 organisations. Last year the award for peace work went to Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian rights activist, ’for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all’. There is politics, if not hypocrisy in choosing awardees for the ‘peace Nobel’. So in 2009, it went to President Barack Obama. It was awarded to the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso in 1989. But they never recognised Tibet’s independence movement for which the Dalai is in exile.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that Nihon Hidankyo, a grass-roots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki was recognised “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons never be used again”.

Incidentally, Nihon Hidankyo, founded in 1956, is “the only nation-wide organisation of A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”. The group has worked towards” telling stories of the Hibakusha to make known to the people their experiences, actual damage and after -effects of the A-bombing, both within and outside Japan and sending A-bomb sufferers to the UN, nuclear weapons states and other countries”.

 More and more states even in the poor third world are trying to acquire nuclear technology, rather ‘nuclear toys’ at the expense of people’s interests. Nihon Hidankyo apart, the international Campaign to abolish Nuclear weapons is working to mobilise public opinion against weapons of mass destruction but nuclear stockpiling is on the rise. No major power is listening! Prize or no prize, it is business as usual.

15-10-2024

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 19, Nov 3 - 9, 2024