A Nobel plea

THE 2024 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots organisation of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, underscores an urgent and timeless call: abolish nuclear weapons before they abolish us. Representing the hibakushas — survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — 92-year-old Terumi Tanaka's speech in Oslo reverberated with haunting memories of 1945 and dire warnings for the present. The horrors etched in Tanaka's narrative — a "bright, white light", the charred remains of loved ones and a city reduced to ashes — are more than history. They are a moral imperative. The bombings killed over two lakh people by the year's end, with countless others succumbing to the radiation's insidious grip. Yet, nearly eight decades later, humanity teeters on the brink of repeating its gravest mistake.

Despite a longstanding global taboo against nuclear weapon use, cracks are showing. Russia's veiled threats to Ukraine, Israel's nuclear rhetoric amid the Gaza conflict and relentless modernisation of arsenals by nuclear-armed states paint a chilling picture. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, once a beacon of hope, is now a neglected promise. The hibakushas' campaign underscores the catastrophic human toll of nuclear warfare and the futility of seeking peace through annihilation. Yet, their struggle also highlights systemic failures — decades of societal discrimination, insufficient state support and political inertia. Their plea for a nuclear-free world is not just an anti-war cry; it is a fight for dignity and survival.

Tanaka's words, "Nuclear weapons cannot — and must not — coexist with humanity", should resonate beyond Oslo. Our collective survival depends on our ability to learn from the past and act decisively in the present. Let us heed the hibakushas' call before their voices, like their memories, fade into silence.