World War II Database

On 6 Aug 1945, the Japanese city of Hiroshima of destroyed by the first atomic weapon detonated in anger. Three days later, on 9 Aug, Nagasaki was devastated in a similar manner. Approximately 160,000 were killed by the two detonations directly, without countless others dying in the upcoming days, months, and years from the effects of burns, radiation poisoning, and cancer.

Since 1956, the Nihon Hidankyo (Nihon Gensuibaku Higaisha Dantai Kyogi-kai, or "Japan Confederation of A-Bomb and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations") had been working with government agencies in Japan, abroad, and at the United Nations to improve support of the survivors and to lobby for the abolition of nuclear weapons. On 11 Oct 2024, Nihon Hidankyo was declared the Nobel Peace 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 hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons", said the Nobel committee. The award was scheduled to be presented in Oslo, Norway on 10 Dec 2024. The selection of Nihon Hidankyo drew attention to ongoing threats of nuclear weapon usages coming from Russia and North Korea and suspected nuclear weapons research ambitions in Iran.

In 2017, the Nobel Peace Prize went to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, an organization also with a vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.

For more information:
Reuters: Japan's Nihon Hidankyo wins 2024 Nobel Peace Prize
Wikpedia: Nihon Hidankyo
WW2DB: Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki