Tag - hibakusha

 
 

HIBAKUSHA

Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka (center) speaks during the group's annual meeting in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2026
As hibakusha numbers dwindle, Nihon Hidankyo to vote on group’s future in 2027
Over the past few years, the group has discussed its own future, with some saying that the organization “will cease to exist if hibakusha are no longer here with us.”
Toshiyuki Mimaki (right) is stepping down as the head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organization.
JAPAN
May 31, 2026
Hiroshima hibakusha group’s head, Mimaki, steps down
Hiroshi Harada, 86, deputy leader of the group of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and former head of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, will succeed Mimaki.
Masao Tomonaga (far right), an 82-year-old doctor who was exposed to the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, and others speak to reporters in the city on Saturday.
JAPAN
May 24, 2026
Hidankyo voices disappointment as nuclear nonproliferation talks fail
The NPT review conference failed to adopt a final document for the third consecutive meeting due chiefly to differences over Iran’s nuclear development program.
Jiro Hamasumi (center), secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, stands alongside the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday.
JAPAN
May 2, 2026
Hiroshima A-bomb survivor calls for abolition of ‘devil’s weapons’ at U.N.
Jiro Hamasumi, secretary-general of Japan’s leading group of atomic bomb survivors, was exposed to the bomb while still in his mother’s womb in Hiroshima.
Hibakusha and others march in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York on Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2026
In New York, hibakusha call for nuclear weapons abolition
More than 200 hibakusha and other people marched for a kilometer to the U.N. headquarters in Midtown Manhattan.
Members of Nihon Hidankyo at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2026
Nihon Hidankyo urges investment ban on makers of nuclear weapons
The organization will make the request directly to financial institutions, including some of Japan’s largest banks.
Shigeaki Mori, an atomic bomb survivor, embraces former U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward in 2016.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 18, 2026
Shigeaki Mori, Hiroshima hibakusha hugged by Obama, dies at 88
Scenes of Mori, a historian, and Obama hugging in May 2016, during Obama’s visit to Hiroshima — the first by a sitting U.S. president — were reported by media outlets worldwide.
The plaintiffs said the three hibakusha had long been excluded from aid due to a government notice stating they would lose their right to receive related state aid if they leave the country, and therefore had been "forced to live with health problems and anxiety."
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2026
Court orders government to pay damages to relatives of hibakusha who left Japan
The hibakusha, originally from what is now South Korea, were exposed to radiation in the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and returned home after the war.
The Supreme Court has confirmed a lower court ruling in favor of the state in a damages lawsuit filed by 27 children of hibakusha in Hiroshima.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2026
Top court rejects damages suit by children of Hiroshima hibakusha
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed that the exclusion of hibakusha children from the hibakusha support law was unconstitutional.
Terumi Tanaka (right), co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, speaks during an event in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2026
Hibakusha and activists vow to continue fighting for nuclear abolition
Terumi Tanaka, co-chair of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, said they are “committed to building the movement” for nuclear abolition this year.
A member of Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) solicits signatures for a petition urging Japan to ratify the nuclear weapons ban treaty at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in October 2024. The organization won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 5, 2026
What happens when the last hibakusha is gone?
As the Peace Clock advances, another clock is running out: The number of people who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is dwindling.
Executives of Nihon Hidankyo, including Secretary-General Jiro Hamasumi (second from right) and co-chair Terumi Tanaka (third from left) in Tokyo in June
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2025
One year on, Nihon Hidankyo seeks to continue as members age
The average age of survivors of the August 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is now over 86.
Members of hibakusha groups collect signatures for the abolition of nuclear weapons at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Nov 10, 2025
A year after Hidankyo’s Nobel win, A-bomb survivors pin hopes on youth
While support for nuclear-weapons abolitionist groups is increasing, the average age of hibakusha has exceeded 86.
Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka speaks to reporters during an event held in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 12, 2025
Hidankyo and others hold event 80 years after atomic bombings
Outside the venue, attendees spoke with those who experienced the massive U.S. bombing of Tokyo in March 1945.
Natsuki Kai, a high school student who attended last year's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony as a student peace messenger, is interviewed in Hiroshima in September.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2025
One year after Hidankyo’s Nobel Prize, student remains true to the cause
Natsuki Kai’s great-grandparents were among those exposed to the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Representatives from Nihon Hidankyo, formally known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, speak during a news conference in Tokyo in October last year after winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2025
Nuclear risk continues to rise, 80 years after atomic bombings
The risk of nuclear attack is at an extreme level despite the robust efforts of Nihon Hidankyo, which received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
Masao Tomonaga, who has been selected as co-deputy chair of a U.N. panel on nuclear war, speaks to reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 7, 2025
U.N. nuclear war panel launched with hibakusha as deputy chair
The panel consists of 21 experts in various fields, such as nuclear and radiation science, medicine and agriculture.
Teruko Yahata speaks to elementary school students in the city of Hiroshima on July 1 about her wartime experience.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2025
Atomic bomb survivor uses English to convey horrors of nuclear weapons
Determined to speak for herself, Teruko Yahata resolved to convey the cruelty and sorrow in her own words, in English, rather than through an interpreter.
Atomic bomb survivor Keiko Ogura (left) speaks with students in Sydney on Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2025
Hiroshima hibakusha calls for nuclear abolition in Australia
Ogura has been talking about the devastation from the nuclear attack in about 50 countries.
Kosuzu Harada (right), a Nagasaki resident and the granddaughter of a double hibakusha, and Ari Beser, the grandson of a radar operator who flew aboard the U.S. B-29 bombers, in the city of Nagasaki in September 2024
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2025
Beyond A-bombs, grandchildren unite for nuclear-free world
A Japanese woman and an American man whose grandfathers experienced the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from opposite sides have forged an unlikely collaboration.

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