The Tragic Story Behind 2024’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

The Nobel Peace Prize organization has travelled all the way to Japan, to meet one of their laureates. The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, said that this was the first time that the committee has gone to the home country of one of the laureates. This has drawn much attention from a worldwide audience. 

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What is so extraordinary about this particular laureate? Who are they? With these questions in mind, I began my research and here’s what I uncovered. The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is a Japanese organization that works for banning nuclear weapons worldwide. 

The Nihon Hidankyo organization was awarded for its ‘efforts to ban nuclear weapon strategies’. Multiple survivors of the fateful Hiroshima & Nagasaki 1945 atomic bombings, actively participate in these efforts and are the pillars of the organization. 

One of the survivors, ‘Keiko Ogura’ says: 

“Before I die, I want to see a world free of nuclear weapons.”

Nihon Hidankyo, over the last 6 decades has led several campaigns, including the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). On the 80th anniversary of these historic bombings, the Nobel committee, and the people of Hiroshima, emphasize the need to abolish these deadly weapons from human society.

Are Nuclear Weapons Necessary?

In 2023, Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed movie, Oppenheimer reached theatres. It depicted the life, moral, and national struggles of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the atomic bomb. A minimal amount of the movie shows the devastating effects of the atom bomb, when Oppenheimer delivers a celebratory speech after the Hiroshima bombing. 

The scenes are a mere snippet of the actual outcome, and are far from the 1945 tragedy. Several questions arise from this incident, firstly, should civilians bear the brunt for national-political actions administered by very few members? Secondly, what does the decision to harm generations of innocents, speak about the growth of the human race? 

Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee Chair says:

“It’s naive to think that humanity can survive in a situation where global security depends on nuclear weapons.”

Finally, as Frydnes states, does global security necessarily require the presence of nuclear weapons? The mass destruction caused by these scientific discoveries hold the threat of ending the human race, rather than protecting them.