A-bomb survivors use Nobel Peace Prize to share anti-nuke message with the young

TOKYO — The recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a fast-dwindling group of atomic bomb survivors who are using the time they have left to convey the firsthand horror they witnessed 79 years ago.

Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons. The survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as their last chance to get their message out to younger generations.

Terumi Tanaka, 91, who survived the Nagasaki bombing at age 13, said he hopes the award will help raise public awareness about the need to achieve a world without nuclear weapons. He said he feels the hibakusha’s desperate wish is not fully understood even as their population rapidly declines.

“Now we face the crisis in which nuclear weapons may be actually used, and they are not even going away. We need to properly communicate with younger people and teach them about atomic weapons … so everyone can think what he or she can do,” Tanaka told a news conference in Tokyo with several other survivors.

“We’ve led the activism because we were atomic bombing victims, but I must say all of you are the future hibakusha candidates,” Tanaka said.

The honor rewards members’ grassroots efforts to keep telling their stories — even though that involved recollecting horrendous ordeals during and after the bombings, and facing discrimination and worries about their health from the lasting radiation impact — for the sole purpose of never again let that happen.

Now, with their average age at 85.6, the hibakusha are increasingly frustrated that their push to eliminate nuclear weapons is not fully understood by younger generations.