Nihon Hidankyo facts for kids
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| Founded | August 10, 1956 |
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| Focus | Abolition of nuclear weapons |
| Headquarters | Shibadaimon, Minato, Tokyo |
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Area served
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Japan |
| Method | Lobbying |
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Executive director
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Sueichi Kido |
The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (日本原水爆被害者団体協議会, Nihon gensuibaku higaisha dantai kyōgi-kai), often shortened to Nihon Hidankyō (日本被団協, Nihon Hidankyō), is a group formed by hibakusha in 1956 with the goals of pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The organisation's activities included providing thousands of witness accounts, issuing resolutions and public appeals, and sending annual delegations to various international organisations, including the United Nations, to advocate for global nuclear disarmament.
This organization was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for "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”.
Overview
Nihon Hidankyo is a nation-wide organisation formed by survivor groups of atomic bomb victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in each prefecture. The fallout from Castle Bravo, a thermonuclear weapon test conducted at Bikini Atoll by the United States in 1954, caused acute radiation syndrome in residents of neighbouring atolls and 23 crew members of the Japanese fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryū Maru. This led to the formation of the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in Hiroshima the following year. Inspired and supported by this movement, atomic bomb survivors established Nihon Hidankyo on 10 August 1956, at the second annual conference of the council in Nagasaki. However, the movement's solidarity was jeopardised when the council became actively involved in the anti-U.S.-Japan Security Treaty movement alongside the left-leaning Japan Socialist Party in 1959. A large number of supporters withdrew from the council, and with the support of the conservative Liberal Democrats, a new organisation, led by Masatoshi Matsushita, leader of the staunchly anti-communist Democratic Socialist Party, was established. In 1961, when the Soviet Union resumed nuclear tests, the communist wing of the council refused to denounce them, which led to severe internal tension. This led to a further split in the movement, with a Japan Socialist Party-backed group that denounces nuclear tests by any nation breaking away as a new council. These tensions within anti-nuclear movements caused some prefectural Hidankyos to split at the local level as well, such as in Hiroshima, where there are both Socialist Party-backed and Communist Party-backed Hidankyos with the same name. The nationwide organisation itself decided not to align with any political movements in 1965, after they became highly politicised.
As of October 2024, Nihon Hidankyo's activities include:
- Advocacy for the abolition of nuclear weapons and demands for state compensations
- Petitioning actions towards the Japanese government, the United Nations and other governments
- Elimination and removal of nuclear weapons, establishment of an international treaty for nuclear disarmament, holding of international conferences, enactment of non-nuclear laws and enhancement of hibakusha support measures
- Raising awareness of the realities of the atomic bombings both domestically and internationally
- Research, study, publication, exhibitions and gatherings on atomic bomb damage
- Consultation and support activities for hibakusha
Honors
- 2003: Seán MacBride Peace Prize
- 2010: Award for Social Activism from the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates
- 2024: Nobel Peace Prize
Before being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Nihon Hidankyo was also nominated in 1985, 1994 and 2015 by the Swiss-based International Peace Bureau (IPB).
See also
- Anti-nuclear movement
- Anti-nuclear power movement in Japan
