A Nagasaki survivor warns Putin before to the Nobel ceremony that nuclear weapons must never be deployed

A 92-year-old survivor of the Nagasaki atomic explosion warned Monday, the eve of his Japanese survivors’ group’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance, that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not fully comprehend the devastating potential of nuclear weapons.

Terumi Tanaka was referring to Putin and other top Russian leaders’ warnings to use nuclear weapons if needed to combat what they perceive to be a belligerent and hostile West as the war in Ukraine approaches its third anniversary.

Putin, whose nation possesses the greatest nuclear arsenal in the world, reduced the threshold for a nuclear strike last month in response to a wider variety of conventional threats.

Nihon Hidankyo, a group of now elderly survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.”

“I don’t think President Putin truly understands what nuclear weapons are for human beings,” Tanaka, a group co-chair, said at a press conference in response to questions regarding the Russian leader’s language and his move to reduce the threshold.

He hasn’t even considered or comprehended this, in my opinion. Getting Putin to truly comprehend what they are is what we must do.

Tanaka stated, “We would like to say nuclear weapons are things which must never be used,” and he had conveyed this message to the Russian leader on Nihon Hidankyo’s behalf.

On behalf of Nihon Hidankyo, Tanaka will deliver the Nobel lecture at a ceremony at Oslo City Hall on Tuesday. Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82, and Shigemitsu Tanaka, 84, the group’s other co-chairs, will also be present.

Just outside of Kyiv, Ukrainian judge Vladyslav Tsukurov spends his days rendering decisions in both criminal and civil matters.

Crowdfunding

At the occasion, Nihon Hidankyo has dispatched a delegation of thirty “hibakusha,” or survivors of the atomic blasts in Japan, along with their kids and grandkids.
In an attempt to gather 10 million yen ($66,278) for the expensive trip, which also required more workers and interpreters, Nihon Hidankyo spearheaded a crowd-funding drive, opens new tab. They easily surpassed their goal, as fans gave more than triple that amount.

The appeal also draws attention to the ‘hibakusha” elderly age and the obvious and unseen scars that remain on them some 80 years after the World War Two blasts.

Between August 6 and August 9, 1945, bombs were detonated on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated 210,000 people immediately or over time. Nuclear weapons from that era are much weaker than those from today.

Japan’s health ministry reported that as of March of this year, there were still 106,825 registered atomic bomb survivors, with an average age of 85.6 years.

($1 is equivalent to 150.8800 yen).