Japan atom bomb survivors' group wins Nobel for anti-nuclear campaign

The Japanese atomic bomb survivors' group Nihon Hidankyo has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for "its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons," the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday.

Committee head Jørgen Watne Frydnes said in Oslo that the group's work had demonstrated "through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again."

The testimony of the survivors - known in Japanese as "hibakusha" - from the bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II had made a "unique" contribution to generating "widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world," he said.

They had drawn on personal stories and created education campaigns which contained "urgent warnings" against the use of atomic bombs.

The award this year comes amid a period of intense conflicts around the world, including in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and many other countries.

Making the announcement, Frydnes said it was an "alarming" that "new countries appear to be preparing to acquire nuclear weapons, and threats are being made to use nuclear weapons as part of ongoing warfare."

A total of 286 candidates were nominated for the prize this year, including 197 individuals and 89 organizations.

Last year, the prestigious award went to imprisoned women's rights activist Narges Mohammadi from Iran.

Other peace prize laureates over the last 30 years include banned Russian rights group Memorial, former US president Barack Obama, the European Union, and the Palestinian and Israeli leaders Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

Traditionally, all of the Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, with the Nobel Peace Prize being the only one awarded in Oslo.

The Nobel Prizes apart from economics stem from the will of the prize founder and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-96).

The prize medals are due to be handed over on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

This year, the awards are endowed with 11 million Swedish krona (just over $1 million) per category.