Tokyo (Web Desk): The leaders of the group of survivors of atomic bombs, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, on Saturday issued a renewed demand to ban nuclear weapons, citing the growing risk of nuclear war.
"The international situation is getting progressively worse, and now wars are being waged as countries threaten the use of nuclear weapons," said Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the 1945 US bombing of Nagasaki and co-head of the Nihon Hidankyo group.
"I fear that we as humankind are on the path to self-destruction. The only way to stop that is to abolish nuclear," he said.
In awarding the survivors, the Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted the devastation of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese group's decades-long work to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The committee stated that the group's efforts are crucial in today's world. It made no mention of any country.
August next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the bombings. It's expected to bring attention to the survivors' legacy, known as "hibakusha," and it might spark a fresh discussion about nuclear weapons.
Many Japanese feel that the US ought to issue an apology for the bombs, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and led to Japan's surrender a few days later.
Since then, Japan has depended on US protection, limiting its military's use to be limited to self-defense and renunciating the right to conduct war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled last month that if the US and its allies allow Ukraine to launch long-range Western missiles into the heart of Russia, Moscow would contemplate retaliating with nuclear weapons.