Nobel peace prize: UN chief calls for end to 'devices of death'

Nobel peace prize: UN chief calls for end to 'devices of death'
by AFP Staff Writers
United Nations, United States (AFP) Oct 11, 2024

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Friday called on world leaders to eliminate all nuclear weapons which he described as "devices of death," after a group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors won the Nobel Peace Prize.

"The atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as the hibakusha, are selfless, soul-bearing witnesses of the horrific human cost of nuclear weapons," the UN secretary general said in a statement.

"It is time for world leaders to be as clear-eyed as the hibakusha, and see nuclear weapons for what they are: devices of death that offer no safety, protection, or security. The only way to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them altogether."

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of survivors from the 1945 US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, founded in 1956.

"While their numbers grow smaller each year, the relentless work and resilience of the hibakusha are the backbone of the global nuclear disarmament movement," Guterres said.

"The United Nations proudly stands with the hibakusha. They are an inspiration to our shared efforts to build a world free of nuclear weapons."

Nuclear weapons don't bring peace: Japanese Nobel laureate
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 11, 2024 - Nuclear weapons never bring peace, said the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, a group of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded the group the Nobel prize on Friday "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".

Toshiyuki Mimaki, co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, broke down in tears at a press conference after the award was announced, saying "never did I dream this could happen".

"It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists," Mimaki told reporters.

"For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won't end there. Politicians should know these things."

He added that members of the group -- which was founded in 1956 -- were the "average age of 85".

"I hope that the second-generation (of atomic bomb survivors) and the general public participate in peace activities, for peace without nuclear weapons," he said.

Mimaki also said the situation for children in Gaza is similar to what Japan faced at the end of World War II.

"In Gaza, bleeding children are being held (by their parents). It's like in Japan 80 years ago," he said.

"(Children in Japan/Hiroshima Nagasaki) lost their fathers in the war and mothers in the atomic bomb. They became orphans."

The 20th century brought Japan's brutal rampage across Asia and World War II, which ended in 1945 after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The first nuclear bomb hit Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and killed 140,000 people.

Three days later, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 74,000 people including many who survived the explosion but died later from radiation exposure.

Japan announced its surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945.

The mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, denounced nuclear weapons as an "absolute evil".

"Hibakusha (survivors) are fast ageing and there are fewer and fewer people able to testify to the meaninglessness of possessing atomic bombs and their absolute evil," he told reporters Friday.

"People in coming generations must know that what happened is not just a tragedy for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but one that concerns all humanity that must not be repeated."

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also hailed the awarding of the prize to Nihon Hidankyo.

"The fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to this organisation, which has spent many years working toward the abolition of nuclear weapons, is extremely meaningful," Ishiba told reporters.

'Unspeakable horror': the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 11, 2024 - The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors who are advocating for "a world free of nuclear weapons".

The survivors are from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities that the United States dropped nuclear bombs on in 1945 at the end of World War II.

Hiroshima was hit on August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing around 74,000 people.

Here are some facts about the attacks:

- The bombs -

The first atomic bomb was dropped on the western city of Hiroshima by the US bomber Enola Gay.

The bomb was nicknamed "Little Boy" but its impact was anything but small.

It detonated about 600 metres (2,000 feet) from the ground, with a force equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT.

Tens of thousands died instantly, while others succumbed to injuries or illness in the weeks, months and years that followed.

Three days later the US dropped a second bomb, dubbed "Fat Man", on the city of Nagasaki.

The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.

- The attacks -

When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the first thing people noticed was an "intense ball of fire", according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Temperatures near the blast reached an estimated 7,000 degrees Celsius (12,600 Fahrenheit), which burned human skin within a radius of about 3.5 kilometres (two miles).

ICRC experts say there were cases of temporary or permanent blindness due to the intense flash of light, and subsequent related damage such as cataracts.

A whirlwind of heat generated by the explosion also ignited thousands of fires that burned several square kilometres of the largely wooden city. A firestorm that consumed all available oxygen caused more deaths by suffocation.

It has been estimated that burn- and fire-related casualties accounted for more than half of the immediate deaths in Hiroshima.

The explosion generated an enormous shock wave that in some cases literally carried people away. Others were crushed to death inside collapsed buildings or injured or killed by flying debris.

"I remember the charred bodies of little children lying around the hypocentre area like black rocks," Koichi Wada, a witness who was 18 at the time of the Nagasaki attack, has said of the bombing.

- Radiation effects -

The bomb attacks unleashed radiation that proved deadly both immediately and over the longer term.

Radiation sickness was reported in the aftermath by many who survived the initial blasts and firestorms.

Acute radiation symptoms include vomiting, headaches, nausea, diarrhoea, haemorrhaging and hair loss, with radiation sickness fatal for many within a few weeks or months.

Bomb survivors, known as "hibakusha", also experienced longer-term effects including elevated risks of thyroid cancer and leukaemia, and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have seen elevated cancer rates.

Of the 50,000 radiation victims from both cities studied by the Japanese-US Radiation Effects Research Foundation, about 100 died of leukaemia and 850 suffered from radiation-induced cancers.

The group found no evidence however of a "significant increase" in serious birth defects among survivors' children.

- The aftermath -

The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II.

Historians have debated whether the devastating bombings ultimately saved lives by bringing an end to the conflict and averting a ground invasion.

But those calculations meant little to survivors, many of whom battled decades of physical and psychological trauma, as well as the stigma that sometimes came with being a hibakusha.

Despite their suffering and their status as the first victims of the atomic age, many survivors were shunned -- in particular for marriage -- because of prejudice over radiation exposure.

Survivors and their supporters have become some of the loudest and most powerful voices opposing the use of nuclear weapons, meeting world leaders in Japan and overseas to press their case.

In 2019, Pope Francis met several hibakusha on visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, paying tribute to the "unspeakable horror" suffered by victims of the attacks.

In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima. He offered no apology for the attack, but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons.

From Manhattan to Hiroshima: the race for the atomic bomb
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 11, 2024 - The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Japanese atomic bomb survivors' movement, Nihon Hidankyo, fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki capped six years of top-secret work by scientists from Europe and North America. Here is an overview of how that process unfolded.

- Einstein warning -

In 1939, Albert Einstein signs a letter warning US president Franklin D. Roosevelt of the destructive potential of nuclear fission, which was discovered by the German chemist Otto Hahn. The letter says the process could result in "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". Roosevelt creates the Advisory Body on Uranium.

- Pearl Harbor -

On December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes destroy much of the US Pacific fleet based at Pearl Harbor. The next day, the United States enters World War II.

- The Manhattan Project -

In August 1942, the US officially launches a top-secret programme to develop an atomic bomb. The project, which had been approved the previous year, comes to be known as the "Manhattan Project". Approximately two billion dollars are spent to achieve its goal.

In 1943, Robert Oppenheimer is named scientific director of a secret lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico, that is to build the bomb. The project includes top physicists from the US, Britain and Canada, in addition to several who fled the Nazi occupation of their homelands in Europe.

- Potential targets -

Around spring 1945, possible targets are evaluated and a list drawn up of Japanese cities that could be hit with an atomic bomb. At the top of the list is Japan's seventh-largest city, Hiroshima. Kyoto is rejected as a target owing largely to its historic and cultural importance.

- Conventional bombs -

On March 9-10, 1945, US warplanes carry out massive firebombing attacks on Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. Around 100,000 people die in the capital alone.

- Battle of Okinawa -

On March 26, the battle of Okinawa begins. More than 100,000 Japanese soldiers and a similar number of civilians die over the next three months, while 12,000 US soldiers are also killed. The battle is used by US officials to justify using atomic bombs, since an invasion of mainland Japan is forecast to result in an even higher cost.

On April 12, Roosevelt dies and Harry Truman becomes president of the United States and learns of the "Manhattan Project".

- German surrender -

On May 8, Germany surrenders, but fighting continues in Asia and the Pacific.

- First American test -

Between May and July, components of the atomic bombs are shipped to Tinian, an island in the Marianas chain from where B-29 bombers are able to reach Japan.

On July 16, at 5:30 am, the "Trinity" test takes place near Alamogordo, New Mexico, demonstrating the awesome power of an atomic bomb and marking the dawn of the nuclear age.

On July 25, Truman agrees to a mission to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. It included approval to drop additional bombs as soon as they became available.

- Allied ultimatum -

On July 26, in the Potsdam Declaration, Britain, China and the United States warn Japan that it must surrender or face "prompt and utter destruction".

Japan decides to "ignore" the ultimatum, although the word used -- "mokusatsu" -- also translates as "no comment".

- Hiroshima and Nagasaki -

On August 6, the US B-29 bomber "Enola Gay" drops a 9,000-pound atomic bomb over Hiroshima at 8:15 am, killing 140,000 people by the end of December, according to a widely accepted toll. Truman tells Japanese leaders that if they do not surrender "they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth".

On August 8, the Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

On August 9, a second atomic bomb explodes over Nagasaki at 11:02 am, killing 74,000 people.

On August 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito tells his nation it has lost the war. He remains on the throne during post-war reconstruction of the country.