In Hiroshima, Nobel Prize brings survivors hope, sense of duty

HIROSHIMA, Japan — Almost eight decades after an atomic bomb devastated her home town of Hiroshima, Teruko Yahata carries the scar on her forehead from when she was knocked over by the force of the blast.

The US bombs that laid waste to Hiroshima on the morning of Aug 6, 1945, and to Nagasaki three days later, changed the course of history and left Yahata and other survivors with deep scars and a sense of responsibility toward disarmament.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday (Oct 11) to the Nihon Hidankyo group of atomic bomb survivors, for its work warning of the dangers of nuclear arms, has given survivors hope and highlighted their work still ahead, Yahata and others said.

"It felt as if a light suddenly shone through. I felt like I could see the light," the 87-year-old said on Saturday, describing her reaction to hearing about the award.

"This feels like the first step, the beginning of a movement toward nuclear abolition," she told Reuters at the site of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

She was just eight years old and in the back garden of her home when the bomb hit. Although her house was 2.5 km from the hypocentre, the blast was strong enough to throw her several metres back into her house, she said.

79 years later, and a day after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the survivors the prize, a long line formed outside the museum, with dozens of foreign and Japanese visitors queueing up to get in.

A bridge leading into the memorial park was decorated with a yellow sheet and other handmade signs against nuclear weapons. Campaigners gathered signatures for nuclear abolition from those passing by.

Nihon Hidankyo, formed in 1956, has provided thousands of witness accounts, issued resolutions and