Atomic bomb survivor group wins Nobel Peace Prize

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to an anti-nuclear weapons group comprised of survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan in World War II. Nihon Hidankyo was lauded by the Nobel Prize Foundation “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.”

The award, which will be presented in Oslo, Norway on Dec. 10, the anniversary of inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Alfred Nobel’s death, was determined by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which called the group a “grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha.”

Nobel established the Nobel Peace Prize and other awards that bear his name in his will. An economic award, administered by the foundation, was added separately and will be announced separately, as well.

The committee said that through the atomic bomb survivors’ tireless efforts to raise awareness of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons, “gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatizing the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as ‘the nuclear taboo,’” per the prize announcement .

While no nuclear weapon has been used in war in 80 years, the committee noted that the taboo against it is “under pressure.” It warns that the two bombs killed about 120,000 people and a similar number died of medical complications later. Those weapons, per the committee, were less powerful than nuclear weapons available today, which “could destroy our civilization.”

Nobel laureates 2024

Other Nobel Prize winners, who will each be honored in Stockholm, Sweden on Dec. 10, were announced earlier this week.

They include:

• The Nobel Prize in Physics to American John J. Hopfield and Canadian Geoffrey E. Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”
• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry to American David Baker, and to the United Kingdom’s Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper for work with protein structures and design.
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for discovering microDNA and its gene-regulating role.
• The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Han Kang of Seoul, South Korea, “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life,” per the announcement. The award was for her body of work.

Recipients of each award receive a gold medal, a Nobel Prize diploma and a cash award that is 11 million Swedish European Kroner this year, or just over $1 million U.S. dollars. If multiple people are named for one of the prizes, they share the cash award.