Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Frydnes has emphasized that the testimonies of hibakusha, or people who survived the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, will bring changes to the world.
"Their story is also a story of memory becoming a force for change," he told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday.
He, therefore, highlighted the historic importance of activities of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, also known as Nihon Hidankyo, which won last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Frydnes visited the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki last week, ahead of the 80th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of the cities on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, in the closing days of World War II.
Noting that he was the first member of the committee to visit the country of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Frydnes said, "We walked through places that changed the course of human history."
He stressed the importance of maintaining nuclear taboo, saying that the atomic bombings created "an international norm that ... any use of nuclear weapons is not only dangerous, but deeply and morally unacceptable."
While Nihon Hidankyo has been working for the abolition of nuclear weapons, Japan is protected under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
On this, Frydnes said, "I don't think fear (of nuclear weapons) is the solutions to our problems," adding, "The hibakusha clearly shows that it is possible, even though in a situation of pain, sorrow, (and) grief, to choose peace, and that's the message we want the world to listen to."
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