A key Japanese member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on Monday congratulated the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Geneva-based organization.
"It is an award for everyone who has worked to eradicate nuclear arms," Akira Kawasaki, an ICAN International Steering Group member and a co-chair of the Japanese nongovernmental organization Peace Boat, told a group of 20 atomic bomb survivors. also known as hibakusha, at a meeting in Tokyo.
ICAN won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts that led to the adoption in July of a landmark U.N. treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. In its campaign, ICAN worked with hibakusha.