Nihon Hidankyo | No more ‘hibakusha’

Atomic bomb survivors and members of Nihon Hidankyo, a nationwide organization of atomic and hydrogen bomb victims, including assistant general secretary Toshiko Hamanaka, co-chairman Terumi Tanaka, assistant general secretary Masako Wada, assistant general secretary Jiro Hamasumi, spoke at a press conference. Took part. In Tokyo on October 12, 2023, the day after Nihon Hidankyo wins the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. Photo courtesy: Reuters

It has been 79 years since the twin cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by two atomic bombs, ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’, dropped by the US Army Air Force. It is the only direct attack on a civilian population using nuclear weapons and its after-effects are a horrifying reminder of their devastating and long-lasting effects. The victims of those attacks, in which an estimated 150,000 to 246,000 people died immediately or by the end of 1945 due to radiation exposure, included survivors known as ‘hibakusha’ (bomb-affected people). Is known. , According to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the combined number of ‘Hibakusha’ alive today is officially 1,06,825. Their average age is 85.6 years.

By awarding the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo or Japan Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Victims Organizations, a group formed by hibakusha in 1956, the Norwegian Nobel Committee finally recognized the efforts made by the group to improve health and provide medical care. Support for hibakusha and efforts for the abolition of nuclear weapons were emphasized in their slogan, ‘No more hibakusha’.

Hidankyo co-chairman Toshiyuki Mimaki, pinching his cheeks and holding back tears, told a news conference in Hiroshima that the award would be a major boost to efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, adding that wars are fought by governments. Are, not citizens. Longed for peace. Speaking to presspersons he said, “Please eliminate nuclear weapons while we are alive. This is the wish of 114,000 Hibakusha”. Hidankyo has been nominated for the Peace Prize several times and his humanitarian insistence on banning nuclear weapons has brought international attention to his cause as he clearly suffers from the use of nuclear weapons.

In the first decade after August 1945, many survivors endured hardships such as unknown disease, fatal disease, and poverty. There was little scope for organization during the American occupation following Japan’s defeat in World War II, as the occupying force censored publications that focused on the suffering of the hibakusha. The end of the occupation provided inspiration for organizing, but the ‘Lucky Dragon 5’ incident – ​​in which a Japanese tuna-fishing vessel was exposed to radioactive fallout from American hydrogen bomb testing at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean – and its The result acted as a catalyst for the creation of Hidankyo. Public outrage over this incident inspired the anti-bomb/bomb-ban movement, leading to Hidankyo.

two demands

Initially, Hidankyo was able to articulate two fundamental demands – “elimination of nuclear weapons” and “relief for hibakusha”. Demands for relief for the hibakusha were directed at the Japanese government rather than the invaders, the United States, because Japanese rights to damages during the war were waived by the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed between Japan and Allied forces in 1951. Hidankyo didn’t even pay attention to it. The Japanese government sought relief because it considered the suffering of its members to be the result of a war waged by the Imperial Japanese state.

The Japanese government’s response was to enact the ‘Atomic Bomb Medical Law’ in 1957, which aimed to “improve the health of hibakusha with state-sponsored investigations and medical assistance”, but it did not do much to alleviate their health concerns or living conditions. I failed. Okinawan and Korean hibakusha were excluded from this aid. Hidankyo was also part of a progressive organization called Gensuikyo that led the bomb ban movement, but Cold War politics and differences between the right-wing and leftist sections of Gensuikyo led Hidankyo to break away from it in the mid-1960s.

Hidankyo made several trips around the world – including to India as part of the World Social Forum in 2004 – to inform people about the horrors of nuclear weapons and the toll it takes on hibakusha in addition to the fact that This was hidden from the public. More than a decade since August 1945.

In the 1970s, Hidankyo also became involved in opposition politics and movements which increased public solidarity and support for it. Over time in Japan, several laws were passed that focused on health care for hibakusha that went beyond treating radiation wounds and illnesses due to the activism of hidankyo. Scholars have said that the group’s long struggle helped put pressure on the Japanese government “to accept its war responsibility” and helped turn the country’s political culture toward greater democracy and justice. Yet, despite changing public opinion on nuclear weapons and ever-increasing relief for the hibakusha, Hidankyo could not shield the Japanese government’s position on the US “nuclear umbrella”, which continues to this day.

The Peace Prize, by highlighting the struggle of the elderly hibakusha, will hopefully provide inspiration to the world to work further on eliminating nuclear weapons and strategies that prevent their presence.