Oslo welcomes Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nihon Hindankyo on "Hiroshima Day"
The event took place at the Nobel Peace Center on Wednesday, August 6, coinciding with the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima 80 years ago.
At the event, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, praised the achievements of Nihon Hidankyo.
He said the Nobel Peace Prize is "more than just a recognition, it's also a warning and a call, a warning that the nuclear threat is not behind us, it is ahead of us, and a call to remember what too many seems to have forgotten, what nuclear weapons truly are."
The assistant secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, Wada Masako, was just 1 year old when the nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. She shared with the audience stories of the devastation she heard from her mother.
Wada appealed for the abolition of nuclear arms, saying, "nuclear weapons cannot coexist with human beings." She emphasized that it is "up to us humans to abolish them by our wisdom, public conscience and responsibility."
An Oslo resident in her 20s who attended the event said that if they don't hear directly from the survivors, people will forget. She stressed the importance of hearing their stories while they are still alive.
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