A Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ group has urged young people to take up the fight for a nuclear-free world while accepting this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of survivors of the 1945 nuclear bombings of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is campaigning for a world free of nuclear weapons using witness testimony.

Nihon Hidankyo’s ranks are dwindling with every year. The Japanese government lists around 106,800 survivors of the bombings, also known as “hibakusha”, still alive today. Their average age is 85.

“Any one of you could become either a victim or a perpetrator, at any time,” Terumi Tanaka, 92, told the audience.

“Ten years from now, there may only be a handful of us able to give testimony as firsthand survivors. From now on, I hope that the next generation will find ways to build on our efforts and develop the movement even further.”

Mr Tanaka’s group had “undoubtedly” played a major role in creating the worldwide standard that it was unacceptable to use atomic weapons, or ‘nuclear taboo’, he said. But he warned that standard was being weakened.

“In addition to the civilian casualties, I am infinitely saddened and angered that the ‘nuclear taboo’ risks being broken,” he said.

Three elderly Japanese men wearing suits are handed a certificate by another man in a suit.

Terumi Tanaka, Shigemitsu Tanaka, and Toshiyuki Mimaki accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo.  (AP: Kin Cheung)

Nihon Hidankyo was also represented at the ceremony by its two other co-chairs, Shigemitsu Tanaka, 84, and Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82.

An estimated 210,000 people died, either immediately or over time, as a result of the bombs dropped in August 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today’s nuclear weapons are far more powerful than those used at that time.

Mr Tanaka was 13 years old at the time of the Nagasaki bombing, and although he survived the explosion almost unharmed at his home some 3km from ground zero, he lost five family members and recalled the harrowing experience.

“The deaths I witnessed at that time could hardly be described as human deaths. There were hundreds of people suffering in agony, unable to receive any kind of medical attention,” Mr Tanaka told the audience.

“I strongly felt that even in war, such killing and maiming must never be allowed to happen.”

Group warns of nuclear weapon threats

Mr Tanaka expressed concern over threats to use nuclear weapons in the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

“There still remain 12,000 nuclear warheads on Earth today, 4,000 of which are operationally deployed, ready for immediate launch,” Mr Tanaka said.

In 2017, 122 governments negotiated and adopted the historic UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), but the text is considered largely symbolic as no nuclear power has signed it.

A large crowd is seated in an ornate town hall. A man is speaking at a lectern.

Ambassadors from Russia, China, Israel, and Iran were not present at the ceremony. (AP: Kin Cheung)

While all ambassadors stationed in Oslo were invited to Tuesday’s ceremony, the only nuclear powers in attendance were Britain, France, India, Pakistan and the United States. Russia, China, Israel and Iran were not present, the Nobel Institute said.

Expressing concern about the world entering “a new, more unstable nuclear age”, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes warned that “a nuclear war could destroy our civilisation”.

“Today’s nuclear weapons … have far greater destructive power than the two bombs used against Japan in 1945. They could kill millions of us in an instant, injure even more, and disrupt the climate catastrophically,” Mr Frydnes said.

Reuters/AFP