Regarding the Counterpoint column by Jeff Kingston headlined "Atomic bomb survivors nominated for Nobel Prize" in the Aug. 2 issue, a Nobel Peace Prize for the atomic bomb survivors is long overdue

The excellent letter of nomination by the International Peace Bureau — itself an early winner of the prize in 1910 — clearly spells out the justification for this.

Professor Robert Jacobs of Hiroshima City University correctly adds that such an award "would be an important way to bring the issue of nuclear proliferation and threat to more global awareness." But he expresses doubts about the likelihood of such an award because it would require a similar award to Holocaust survivors.

This does not follow at all, and represents a mistaken belief what the award for the hibakusha would be for. It would not be a recognition for their suffering as victims and survivors, but for their life-long campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The award would be all the more appropriate since the "champions of peace" that Alfred Nobel wanted to honor and support above all were those who were devoted to the reduction and abolition of standing armies.

Today, this means in the first instance the reduction and abolition of nuclear weapons.

It is nothing less than a scandal that 70 years after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and when the average age of hibakusha is 80, their enormous dedication to the cause of nuclear abolition goes unrecognized in Oslo. Let us hope that this injustice will be rectified in this anniversary year.

PETER VAN DEN DUNGEN

BRADFORD, ENGLAND

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.