The Nobel Peace Prize, 2024, has been awarded to an organisation that has, since its founding in 1956, worked for what Milan Kundera called the “struggle of memory against forgetting”. Nihon Hidankyo preserves testimonies and memories of the survivors (called “Hibakusha”) of the only two nuclear weapon attacks in human history at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In addition, the Japan-based group has been a consistent and vocal advocate for nuclear disarmament and a ban on atomic weapons. There is, of course, a context to the Prize. And in the current moment — with at least two devastating wars underway, the suffering of people on screens 24/7 — there are crucial questions to be asked about the moral power of “witnessing” and “remembering” in ending mass violence.
In a barely disguised reference to Russia, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said, “In a world ridden (with) conflicts, where nuclear weapons are definitely part of it, we wanted to highlight the importance of strengthening the nuclear taboo.” The devastation at Nagasaki and Hiroshima and of the Holocaust were the twin horrors that proved humanity’s ability to perpetrate the worst suffering on itself. They also became the basis for a semblance of morality between and within nation-states, exemplified in some senses by UN charters and powerful slogans like “nuclear taboo” and “never forget”. In essence, the existential crisis brought on by the technologies of war and from dehumanising people and communities was sought to be avoided by ensuring that the depravities were seen, remembered, the stories of those who suffered heard. But is this enough?
