(Reuters) – The Nobel Peace Prize was won by Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also known as Hibakusha.
Here is reaction to Friday’s announcement:
NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE
“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.”
NIHON HIDANKYO CO-CHAIR TOSHIYUKI MIMAKI
“(The win) will be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons and everlasting peace can be achieved,” he told a news conference in Hiroshima, site of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing during World War Two.
“Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished.”
JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER SHIGERU ISHIBA
“It’s extremely meaningful that the organisation that has worked toward abolishing nuclear weapons received the Nobel Peace Prize,” Ishiba told a press conference in Laos.
PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OSLO
“Nihon Hidankyo’s work reminds us of the devastating human cost of nuclear weapons, a message we cannot ignore. In an era where automated weapon systems and AI-driven warfare are emerging, their call for disarmament is not just historical — it is a critical message for our future. This prize highlights the need for global cooperation to steer humanity away from another world war and towards lasting global peace.”
DAN SMITH, HEAD OF THE STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SIPRI)
“The committee is drawing attention to a very dangerous situation in the world, with relations between China and the U.S., and between Russia and the U.S., the most toxic since the end of the Cold War.
“If there is a military conflict, there is a risk of it escalating to nuclear weapons …
“They (Nihon Hidankyo) are really an important voice to remind us about the destructive nature of nuclear weapons.”
Smith said the Committee had achieved “a triple strike” with the prize: drawing attention to the human suffering of nuclear bomb survivors; to the danger of nuclear weapons; and to the fact that that the world had survived without their use for nearly 80 years.
RAVINA SHAMDASANI, U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE SPOKESPERSON
“To us, it’s recognition of the importance of grassroots organisations, and in particular survivors of horrific violations for their tireless and persistent work, often away from the spotlight without much recognition, with a lot of obstacles, with not always a tremendous amount of resources at their disposal, but for them to keep going in spite of the horrors they themselves experienced, to try to make the world a better place for all of us,” Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.
ALESSANDRA VELLUCCI, UNITED NATIONS SPOKESPERSON IN GENEVA
“We’ve seen the effects of the bomb in the Second World War. We have got now weapons that are so many more times more powerful than those that we use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And I think that the work of this grassroots movement (that) fights against … even the idea that such a war can be fought again, it’s absolutely critical, and that is why I think this Nobel Peace Prize is so important today.”
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Compiled by Alison Williams; Editing by Toby Chopra and Kevin Liffey)
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