Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Japanese atomic bomb survivors
Nihon Hidankyo – a group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki – has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the group’s extraordinary efforts “to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons” and “to remind the world of the pressing need for nuclear disarmament”.
It said: “This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the 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.
“These historical witnesses have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons.”
In awarding the prestigious accolade to the group, committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes said it wished “to honour all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace”.
Next year will mark 80 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (pictured) in August 1945. Pic: AP
“Never did I dream this could happen,” Toshiyuki Mimaki, head of Nihon Hidankyo, told reporters at a news conference in Hiroshima on Friday with tears in his eyes.
He was three years old and playing in front of his family home on the morning of 6 August 1945 when he saw a flash in the sky.
Mr Mimaki said the group’s win would give a major boost to its efforts to demonstrate to the world “the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved”.
“Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished,” he said.
Toshiyuki Mimaki learns Nihon Hidankyo is the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Pic: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP
Next year will mark 80 years since the atomic bombings by the United States of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 during World War Two.
Without naming specific countries, Mr Frydnes warned today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power, and could kill millions of people.
“A nuclear war could destroy our civilisation,” he said.
It is not the first time efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honoured by the committee.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the prize in 2017 – and in 1995, Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs were awarded the prestigious accolade for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”
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Nagasaki’s peace park. File pic: Lucas Vallecillos/VWPics/AP
Last year, the award went to Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist.
Other previous winners of the award include South Africa’s anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela, former US president Barack Obama for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy, and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai for her fight for the right of girls to receive an education.
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.
The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine.
Earlier this week, British computer scientist Sir Demis Hassabis was one of three winners of the Nobel Prize for chemistry for breakthroughs in predicting the structure of proteins and creating entirely new ones.
Sir Demis, who is the chief executive and co-founder of London-based artificial intelligence start-up Google DeepMind, received the honour alongside John Jumper, a senior research scientist at the company, and David Baker, of the University of Washington.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
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Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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