Risk of nuclear war rising amid global conflicts, Nobel peace laureate says

‘Path to self-destruction’: Survivors callback horrors of atomic bombings arsenic they gully parallels to ongoing wars.

Conflicts raging astir the world, including successful Gaza, are heightening the anticipation of a atomic war, the victor of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize warned, renewing calls for the abolition of atomic weapons.

Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots radical of Japanese atomic weaponry survivors, won the prize connected Friday for its “efforts to execute a satellite escaped of atomic weapons”.

On Saturday, Shigemitsu Tanaka, a subsister of the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki by the United States and co-leader of the group, said the “international concern is getting progressively worse, and present wars are being waged arsenic countries endanger the usage of atomic weapons”.

“I fearfulness that we arsenic humankind are connected the way to self-destruction. The lone mode to halt that is to abolish nuclear,” the nonmigratory of Nagasaki told reporters.

Nagasaki was the 2nd Japanese metropolis that was deed by a US atomic weaponry connected August 9, 1945, sidesplitting astatine slightest 74,000 people. Three days earlier, the US bombing of Hiroshima had killed 140,000 people.

Hiroshima residents said connected Saturday they hoped the satellite ne'er forgets the bombings of 1945 – present much than ever.

Susumu Ogawa, 84, was 5 erstwhile the weaponry each but obliterated Hiroshima 79 years ago, and galore of his household members were among the tens of thousands killed.

“My mother, my aunt, my grandfather, and my grandma each died,” Ogawa told the AFP quality agency.

“All atomic weapons successful the satellite person to beryllium abandoned,” Ogawa said. “We cognize the fearfulness of atomic weapons, due to the fact that we cognize what happened successful Hiroshima.”

What is happening present successful the Middle East, with Israel’s wars successful Gaza and Lebanon and escalating tensions with Iran, saddens him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled successful September that Moscow would see responding with atomic weapons if the US and its allies let Ukraine to onslaught heavy wrong Russia with long-range Western missiles.

“Why bash radical combat each other?… Hurting each different won’t bring thing good,” Ogawa said.

On Saturday, Japanese demonstrators rallied successful enactment of Palestinians successful Gaza, astatine the preserved Atomic Bomb Dome successful the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, the co-chief of the radical and a subsister of the Hiroshima bombing, said connected Friday that the concern for children successful Gaza is akin to that of Japan astatine the extremity of World War II.

“In Gaza, bleeding children are being held [by their parents]. It’s similar successful Japan 80 years ago,” Mimaki told a quality league successful Tokyo.

Nihon Hidankyo was formed successful 1956, tasked with telling the stories of hibakusha, arsenic the survivors are known, and pressing for a satellite without atomic weapons.

With the mean property among the astir 105,000 hibakusha inactive live present 85, it is captious that young radical proceed to beryllium taught astir what happened, residents said.

Visiting the Hiroshima memorial, Kiyoharu Bajo, 69, said helium hoped the Nobel prize would assistance “further dispersed the experiences of atomic weaponry survivors astir the world” and transportation others to visit.

“I was calved 10 years aft the atom weaponry was dropped, truthful determination were galore atom weaponry survivors astir me. I felt the incidental arsenic thing acquainted to me,” helium said.

“But for the future, it volition beryllium an issue.”

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies