80,000 Voices Celebrates Nihon Hidankyo's Nobel Peace Prize Win

Toshiyuki Mimaki, Nihon Hidankyo’s co-chair “Two days after the bombing, my mother took us into the city to search for our father. I was just three years old and was exposed to radiation. Several years later, I became seriously ill.”

80,000 Voices proudly applauds Nihon Hidankyo for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, a testament to their decades long campaign to rid the world of  nuclear weapons. The Nobel Committee recognized this organization of hibakusha—survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings—for their tenacious efforts in building global opposition to nuclear weapons through personal narratives and educational initiatives, issuing urgent warnings against their proliferation.

The Committee stated, “The hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.”

Nihon Hidankyo were instrumental in the world’s negotiation and adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which was ratified by 73 countries with a further 25 in the process of joining.

80,000 Voices, founded by Gina Langton in 2013 after studying Peace Studies at Hiroshima City University, is an organisation whose mission is to promote nuclear abolition by  amplifying the voices and stories of the global hibakusha  through harnessing the power of the creative arts. 

In 2023, Gina commissioned award-winning artist Patrick Boyd to take 52 high-resolution, white and black lenticular portraits that could memorialise the lives of the atomic bomb survivors and become a global archive that could be shown to future generations around the world.

Soka Gakkai International hosted and sponsored the premiere exhibition of "Portraits of the Hibakusha: 80 Years Remembered" in central Tokyo in 2024, in which 20,000 visitors came  face-to-face with the three-dimensional life-like images, invoking deep emotional responses from those who saw them. 

The portraits invite the viewer to recognise the strength, resilience and dignity of these survivors who have endured so much. Through the striking expression of the survivors and their poignant messages, it is 80,000 Voices’ mission that the tragedies of the past are never forgotten, advocating for a world free from nuclear threats, making sure that the potential devastating reality of nuclear catastrophe is never experienced again.

Langton remarked, "The legacy of these powerful portraits is a clarion call to challenge the narrative that glorifies war and encourages destruction and killing as a solution for peace. We honour the hibakusha's bravery and strive to prevent anyone from enduring the horrors of nuclear warfare again."

Nihon Hidankyo’s co-chair, Toshiyuki Mimaki, whose 3D portrait features in 80,000 Voices’s exhibition, told a news conference that the belief nuclear weapons can bring peace is categorically wrong. “It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists,” he said. “For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won’t end there. Politicians should know these things.” 

As we approach the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the threat of nuclear warfare increases, 80,000 Voices is seeking prominent national venues for this significant exhibition, including the Imperial War Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. These esteemed locations would enhance the exhibition's reach and impact.

Join us in celebrating this momentous recognition and engaging in essential conversations about peace and the legacy of nuclear warfare.

For media inquiries, please contact Lily Wakeley at lily.wakeley@80000voices.org or +44 7717783341.

About 80,000 Voices: 

80,000 Voices Ltd. is an UK organisation using the power of the creative arts to promote peace education and action towards nuclear abolition. This project was photographed last year in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Toronto, and Kobe. We are a partner organisation of ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons), whose 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was received by Hibakusha and peace campaigner Setsuko Thurlow, who was also photographed as part of this project. 

Reviews from our Tokyo exhibition: 

“An indictment of the long-term impact of nuclear weapons. This is a haunting quality in all the messages. You know these people who lived through an experience so powerful and painful it has shaped their lives. The exhibition was incredibly powerful and moving.” – Visitor from London, UK 

“[the exhibition] had a profound effect on us including my friend’s 14-year-old daughter who is now interested in doing a special project about the impact and effects of the A-bomb on the survivors.” – Visitor from Manchester, UK