Bomb survivors’ Nobel Prize a reminder to world on edge of nuclear war

These survivors are known in Japanese as hibakusha; the term refers to people affected by exposure to radiation from the atomic bombs. They are among the most unfortunate victims of the atomic age, having been plagued by serious health issues and social ostracism. Japanese government figures put the number of surviving hibakusha at just under 107,000 with an average age of more than 85.

Nihon Hidankyo received the Nobel Prize 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 official statement from Oslo adds that the hibakusha “help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.”