Statement on the Award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo
by Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
ノーベル平和賞の日本被団協への授賞についてのHANWA声明
「核と人類は共存できない」を世界共通の理念に！
２０２４年ノーベル平和賞は日本原水爆被害者団体協議会（日本被団協）に授与された。ヒバクシャへの授賞を英断された勇気ある選定に敬意を表明する。
ノルウェー・ノーベル委員会フリードネス委員長は、授賞理由を発表するスピーチやインタビューにおいて、次のように述べた。
・・・１９４５年８月に、アメリカが広島、長崎に投下した２発の原爆によって、未曽有の人間的悲惨の極みをもたらした無差別大量虐殺と、地獄を生きのびた人々のケロイドや放射線障害による苦難は、長く覆い隠され顧みられずにきた。１９５６年、地元の被爆者団体は太平洋での核実験の被害者と共に自ら立ち上がり、日本原水爆被害者団体協議会を結成した。人類の文明を破壊する核の壊滅的な非道徳性の実態について身をもって証言し、この８０年間核戦争の危機から何とか人類を守るため闘ってきた比類なき証人たちの組織である。
現在、世界で惹き起こされている戦争で、まさに核が使われようとしている危機にある時、我々が被爆者の意志を引き継ぎ、核と人類は共存できないことを確認しよう。・・・
私たちは、被爆者が、想像を絶する苦しみの中で、自らを救い、同時に人類をも救おうと決意し、血を吐く思いで闘い続け斃(たお)れていった先人たちの意志に学び、このノーベル平和賞が示した巨大な核権力との闘いに、あらためて勇気を奮い起こさなければならない。
日本被団協は、広島・長崎の被爆者が、１９５２年までは戦後占領軍のプレスコードの中にあっても、様々な被爆者のグループを作り、お互いに寄り添い支え合いながら、生活苦や病苦、肉親たちを喪失した悲嘆から、自ら国に被爆者援護を求めて立ち上がり、結集していった。
１９５4年のビキニ環礁におけるブラボー水爆実験により、第五福竜丸をはじめとする多くの漁船団は死の灰をかぶり、大きな犠牲をこうむった。核実験の被害を目撃した日本、世界の民衆は、原水爆禁止の国際的な運動に立ち上がり、一挙に大きな力を獲得して、１９５５年に第１回の原水爆禁止世界大会を開催し、被爆者たちは初めて世界に、原爆により受けた痛苦のさまを訴えた。
１９５６年３月には広島県被団協を結成して、同年８月までに被爆者の全国調査に奔走し、１５県に被爆者組織を立ち上げ、第２回原水爆禁止世界大会において日本被団協を結成するに至った。その後、全国に網の目を張って強力な組織を作り上げていった。結成宣言『世界へのあいさつ』で、「かくて私たちは自らを救うとともに、私たちの体験をとおして人類の危機を救おうという決意を誓い合った」と、発信したのだった。
それは、日本被団協が当初から掲げてきた運動の理念と言われる「国家補償の理念にもとづく被爆者援護法の要求運動と原水爆禁止運動を車の両輪とする」というものである。この理念は、現在も取り組まれ続けている世界の核被害者の運動に引き継がれている先達からの遺産になっている。
しかしながら、１９５７年に原爆医療法、１９６８年には原爆被爆者特別措置法を勝ち取り、その後１９９４年に一本化された被爆者援護法においても、被団協が追求した国家の戦争責任を認める「国家補償」の精神に基づく援護法とはならなかった。国家が戦争責任を認めないことに被爆者たちの怒りがどれほどのものであったかを推察し、共感を表明するところである。
核被害、戦争被害の犠牲者は世界の殆どの地で、権力者の植民地主義、圧政による先住民をはじめとする弱き立場の民衆に及んできた。日本のアジアへの侵略により朝鮮韓国の多くの民が原爆被害者となったように。被爆者運動の先人たちの闘いの中でも孫振斗裁判のように闘われてきた。
ノーベル平和賞の授賞理由には、被爆者運動が、核をタブー化した証言活動などの努力を評価しつつも、核被害者が自分たちへの国家の援護を求めてきた被爆者援護活動というもう一つの柱についての言及がなされていないのは残念であるが、これは日本における被爆者を中心とする私たちが引き継ぐべき課題であろう。次なる核被害者を生み出さないための闘いの原則として。
ノーベル平和賞の授賞をうけ、私たちヒロシマは今後もさらに独自に歩み続けていく。
私たちは、核被害者である先達たちが、孤独な、地を這う運動として出発し闘う中で認識し、向き合うべき対象を全ての核被害に向けてきたことに学び、核被害が核戦争における核兵器による被害にとどまらず、現在進行形で増え続けている核の被害、すなわちウラン鉱山採掘に始まり、核兵器、原発用に用いるウランの精錬、濃縮過程、２０００回を超える核実験、原発事故による核被害、核開発利用のあらゆる段階で引き起こされている人間、環境の汚染に対し向き合い、あらゆる核を否定する反核運動をすすめていく。核の利用をやめない限り人類に未来はないことを再確認する。
また、原爆被爆者対策基本問題懇談会が１９８０年答申で、「戦争被害は国民が等しく受忍しなければならない」とした、いわゆる「受忍論」「被曝線量などの科学的根拠の必要論」は、核被害を矮小化し隠蔽化するもので、われわれが乗り越えなければならない大きな課題である。
ＨＡＮＷＡは、２０２５年被爆８０周年を迎えるにあたって、核兵器廃絶の闘いとともに、核のあらゆる利用サイクルを廃絶する闘いを担っていく決意をあらたにする。ＴＰＮＷ発効４周年の１月２２日には１５００本のキャンドルで、亡き核被害者の霊と共に”核と人類は共存できない”、”人類は生きねばならぬ！”と原爆ドームから世界にアピールすることに始まり、１０月には、世界各地の核被害者を結集して「核の無い未来を！世界核被害者フォーラム」をヒロシマで開催する。ノーベル平和賞授賞に敬意と連帯で応え、ノーベル委員会委員長からも力強いメッセージを期待する。
ヒロシマの先人の“遺言”「人間的原子の連鎖反応が、物質的原子の連鎖反応を越えねばならぬ」に習い、世界民衆の連帯の連鎖反応の力により、核エネルギーの連鎖反応で生み出される巨大な力に打ち勝とうと世界に呼びかける。
フリードネス委員長が言及したように、ヒロシマから世界に普遍化してきた「核と人類は共存できない」という理念を共有し、連帯しよう。
２０２４年１１月26日
核兵器廃絶をめざすヒロシマの会（HANWA）
November 26, 2024
Statement on the Award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo
by Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
Let’s make “Nuclear and humanity cannot coexist”
a common principle around the world!
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo). I would like to express my sincere respect for the courageous decision to acknowledge the efforts of hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors).
Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes of the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed the following reasons for the award in his speeches and interviews:
Next year will mark 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 120,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A comparable number died of burn and radiation injuries in the months and years that followed.
The fates of those who survived the infernos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were long concealed and neglected.
In 1956, local Hibakusha associations along with victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations.
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.
No nuclear weapon has been used in war in nearly 80 years. The extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the Hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo. It is therefore alarming that today this taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.
It is inspiring to see how they continued their work and also how they are transferring it to new generation in Japan. …humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist. We should make sure that these weapons are never used ever again.
We must learn lessons from the will of our predecessors, who were determined to save themselves and at the same time save humanity, and who continued their fight until they passed away despite their unimaginable grueling suffering. We must renew our courage in the fight against the colossal power of nuclear-armed states, as the announcement of Nobel Peace Prize has demonstrated.
Atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki formed various groups of hibakusha, even though they were under strict censorship by the postwar occupation forces until 1952. While supporting each other, hibakusha rallied and demanded that the government support the survivors, because of their illnesses and the grief of losing their immediate family members.
The Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in 1954 caused radioactive fallout and devastated the Daigo Fukuryu-maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5) and many other fishing boats. The people of Japan and the world, who witnessed the devastation caused by the nuclear tests, rose up in the international movement to ban atomic and hydrogen bombs, assembled great strength, and held the First World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in 1955, where hibakusha appealed to the world for the first time about their pain and suffering from the atomic bombings.
In March 1956, hibakusha formed Hiroshima Prefectural Hidankyo. By August of the same year, they conducted a nationwide survey of A-bomb survivors, and established A-bomb survivors’ organizations in 15 prefectures, and finally formed Nihon Hidankyo at the Second World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. After that, they built a powerful organization by creating a network of hibakusha all across the country. In “Greetings to the World,” the founding declaration of Nihon Hidankyo, they said, “thus we pledge our determination to save ourselves and to save humanity from the crisis through our experiences.”
This is the principle of the movement that Nihon Hidankyo has advocated since its establishment: that “the movement to demand an Atomic Bomb Survivors Assistance Law based on the principle of national reparation, and the movement to ban atomic and hydrogen bombs, are two sides of the same coin.” This principle has become a legacy from our predecessors that has been passed on to the ongoing movement of nuclear victims around the world.
However, the Atomic Bomb Medical Care Act of 1957, the Hibakusha Special Measures Law of 1968, and even the Hibakusha Assistance Law of 1994, which subsequently consolidated the previous laws, were relief measures based not on the spirit of “national reparation” that recognized Japan’s accountability for World War II, which was pursued by Hidankyo. We can only imagine how furious the A-bomb survivors were at the government’s refusal to acknowledge their accountability for the war, and we express our sympathy to the survivors.
In most parts of the world, nuclear victims and victims of war have been indigenous peoples and other vulnerable people who are subjected to colonialism and oppression from those in power. Japan’s invasion of Asia caused many people in the Korean Peninsula (both the present-day Republic of Korea and the present-day Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to become victims of the atomic bombings. Even in the struggles of the predecessors of the A-bomb survivors’ movement, there was the lawsuit led by Son Jin-doo, a Korean hibakusha (the lawsuit that paved the way for the expansion of benefits to hibakusha living abroad).
It is unfortunate that the reason for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize, while appreciating the efforts of the hibakusha movement to testify to making nuclear weapons taboo, does not mention the other pillar of the A-bomb survivors’ movement, which is national reparation. However, this is an assignment that we, or those in Japan led by hibakusha, should take over. This is a principle of the struggle to prevent the creation of more nuclear victims.
With the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, we in Hiroshima will continue to move forward.
We have learned from our predecessors – who were nuclear victims and who have recognized and confronted all nuclear impacts while establishing the earth-crawling movement without much support – that nuclear impacts are not limited to the damage caused by nuclear weapons in a nuclear war. We have learned that nuclear impacts are also increasing and ongoing, from uranium mining, processing and enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, more than 2,000 nuclear tests, nuclear disasters, and the radioactive contamination against human beings and the environment caused at every stage of nuclear development and use. Therefore, we promote an anti-nuclear movement that denies all nuclear cycle. We reaffirm that there is no future for humanity unless we denounce the entire nuclear cycle.
In addition, the so-called “theory of accepting and enduring the war damage,” the “necessity of scientific evidence in terms of radiation doses,” and as stated in a 1980 report by the Advisory Council on Basic Issues for Atomic Bomb Survivors, the idea that “the damage caused by war must be equally borne by the people,” are important issues that we must overcome, as they trivialize and conceal the impact of nuclear damage.
To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings in 2025, HANWA renews its determination to play a role in the struggle for the abolition of nuclear weapons as well as the abolition of all nuclear cycle. On January 22, 2025, on the fourth anniversary of the entry into force of the TPNW, 1500 candles will be lit in front of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) with the spirits of the deceased nuclear victims to send messages to the world such as “Nuclear and humanity cannot coexist” and “Humanity must live!”. In October, the World Nuclear Victims Forum will be held in Hiroshima, bringing together nuclear victims from all over the world. We humbly express our respect and solidarity to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, and we look forward to hearing a strong message from the Chairman of the Nobel Committee.
To learn from the wisdom of our predecessors in Hiroshima, that “Chain reactions of spiritual atoms must overcome chain reactions of material atoms,” we call upon the world to overcome the enormous power created by nuclear chain reactions with the power of chain reactions of solidarity among the people of the world.
Let us share and stand in solidarity with the idea that “nuclear and humanity cannot coexist,” a principle from Hiroshima that has been universalized throughout the world.