Japanese atomic bomb survivors accept Nobel Peace Prize

Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ group, has accepted the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons”.

Now in their 80s and 90s, members of the group who survived American bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki accepted the award at a ceremony in Oslo’s City Hall in Norway.

In an interview with Al Jazeera inside the award venue, Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82, the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, said he was surprised to learn the group had won this year’s award.

“I was in the Hiroshima City Hall at the time watching the announcement, and I was expecting that the prize this year would go to people working for peace in Gaza,” he said.

“I was just so shocked.”