[Trending News] Light of hope for abolishment: Japan anti-nuke groups showed resolve in Oslo – The Mainichi

HIROSHIMA — The torches illuminating the sub-zero night in Oslo, Norway, were dreamlike. With every step, the procession became larger. By the end, it had grown to some 1,000 people chanting “No more hibakusha (A-bomb victims).”

“What can be done to keep alive this burning flame?” wondered 80-year-old Kunihiko Sakuma with elation and a hint of anxiety. In December 2024, Sakuma, a resident of Hiroshima’s Nishi Ward, had gone to Oslo on the occasion of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo. After witnessing the awarding from a public viewing location, he participated in a torchlit procession through the city to celebrate the group and led it at the front for around 1 kilometer.

“A light in the darkest night,” is how Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes described the activities of the A-bomb survivors who continue their testimonies. To Sakuma, the procession of survivors, their second-generation hibakusha descendants and the people of Oslo who came together for the procession also offered a light of hope in a world that sees a rising risk of the use of nuclear weapons once more.

In the morning on the day of the procession, Sakuma and other A-bomb survivors had met with members of the Norwegian legislature. He spoke about being 9 months old at home 3 kilometers from the hypocenter when the bomb was dropped above Hiroshima, developing illness suspected of being due to radiation when he was 11 and how he was overcome by fear of dying whenever his health worsened. He told the legislators how the nuclear bomb is not a problem of the past and remains absolute evil.

Norway is a member of NATO, which is under the United States’ nuclear umbrella. One of the legislators, facing the A-bomb survivors and others, bluntly said that the country is not wrong to be under the nuclear umbrella, in consideration that Russia, which continues its threats to use nukes, lies next door.

How can the hibakusha best convey the taboo against using nuclear weapons, given the way the world relies on nuclear deterrence for security? Most of the survivors, like Sakuma, were very young when the attacks occurred, and have close to no memory of the time. Second-generation survivors and other supporters not only lack direct memory, but the physical experience of being impacted. The weight of this reality was once again made clear.

A seedling has sprouted

During his trip, Sakuma also had a happy reconnection. He had visited Oslo in 2017, when the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He oversaw seeds from a gingko tree that had survived the Hiroshima blast being given to a botanical garden there.

This time too, a ceremony was held at the same botanical garden, and Sakuma planted in pots seeds from a “hibaku jumoku” tree that survived the bombing. The gingko given seven years earlier had sprouted and grown to around 1 meter. Sakuma gently put his arms around the plant, rejoicing in how it has grown in Norway, which gets little sunshine over winter.

Over those seven years, the sparks of war have not abated from parts of the world, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the attack on Hamas by Israel in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

“The trees cannot speak, but I believe they see the human suffering caused by war. I hope that by the time the saplings grow up, the world will be free of nuclear weapons,” said Sakuma.

Sakuma is scheduled to attend the third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in New York this March. “We must not stop at ‘We’re happy to receive the award.’ I’ll continue to appeal to the younger generation with resolve,” he said.

(Japanese original by Chinami Takeichi, Hiroshima Bureau)