On December 10 in Oslo, Norway, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to
members of Japan’s Nihon Hidankyo, an organization representing hibakusha,
survivors of the atomic bombing in 1945 of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Also known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers
Organizations, the Norwegian Nobel Committee in October announced the award
to Nihon Hidankyo “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.”

Terumi Tanaka, a 92 year old survivor of the Nagasaki bombing accepted the
award on behalf of his fellow survivors at a ceremony in Oslo. “I am
infinitely saddened and angered that the nuclear taboo threatens to be
broken,” he said referring to renewed threats in 2024 amid worsening global
relations to use nuclear weapons again.

The hibakusha have provided living reminders of the horrors of nuclear war
through the nearly 80 years since the only time nuclear weapons were used in
conflict.

But their voices will soon be silenced by the passage of time.

Who will replace them?

We asked Ian Fleming Zhou, a  PhD candidate in Pretoria, South Africa, to
put the question to Suzuka Nakamura of Know Nukes Tokyo, and to Ambassador
Alexander Kmentt, Director of Disarmament, Arms Control and
Non-proliferation at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Watch both interviews here: