Hidankyo Member Denounces Nuclear Weapons at World Expo

Osaka, Aug. 12 (Jiji Press)--Hiroshi Kanamoto, an official of Nihon Hidankyo, the winner of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, strongly denounced nuclear weapons in his lecture at the World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka on Tuesday.
 

"Nuclear weapons are absolutely evil arms whose sole purpose is extinction, and their use must never be allowed," he said. Nihon Hidankyo is formally called the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations.
 

In the speech, he shared stories, including that of his sister, who survived the atomic bombing of the western Japan city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II.
 

The sister, then 12, was exposed to radiation from the bomb 1.5 kilometers from ground zero. After losing most of her friends because of the bombing, she was unable to take joy in life. She married in defiance of opposition from her family, but her first child was stillborn, according to Kanamoto.
 

Before she died of lung cancer, the sister told him, "If I could tell my country anything, I want to say, 'I'd like my youth back.'" Kanamoto recounted tearfully.
 

"I cannot bear to imagine how hard her life was," Kanamoto told reporters after the lecture. "She was just one person, but every life carries a great weight," he said.

Kanamoto expressed his determination to continue testifying about the atomic bombing and urging the Japanese government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted at the United Nations in 2017 and put into effect in 2021.

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