By ASAKO HANAFUSA/ Staff Writer
December 10, 2024 at 14:20 JST
OSLO—A hibakusha who will speak at the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony here criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has threatened to use nuclear weapons over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, at a news conference on Dec. 9.
“(Putin) has never thought about or understood what nuclear weapons are or what they mean for human beings,” said Terumi Tanaka, 92, when asked about the Russian president by a reporter for the Reuters news agency.
Tanaka is a co-chairperson of Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Federation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, which will receive the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
He said the “most significant challenge” for atomic bomb survivors is to change the way world leaders like Putin think.
Nihon Hidankyo’s three co-chairpersons will stand on the podium at the Dec. 10 award ceremony and Tanaka will deliver a speech on behalf of the organization.
At the Dec. 9 news conference, which was attended by about 100 reporters, Tanaka emphasized that many hibakusha believe that any use of nuclear weapons is “unforgivable.”
A Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. reporter asked him to offer a message for countries that maintain that nuclear weapons are necessary for national defense.
Tanaka disputed the belief that nuclear weapons can protect people’s lives and property.
“I am convinced that they definitely cannot,” he said. “There is no chance for nuclear deterrence to be viable.”
Tanaka expressed his determination to hand down the anti-nuclear message to younger generations.
“We (hibakusha) will all be gone someday,” he said. “In the short remaining years of my life, I want to draw on what strength I have to tell young people that nuclear weapons must not be allowed to co-exist with human beings.”
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Terumi Tanaka speaks at a news conference in Oslo on Dec. 9. Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, looks on. (Jun Ueda)
