In this 70th year anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Swiss-based International Peace Bureau (IPB) nominated Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. This is Hidankyo's third such nomination by the IPB, following earlier bids in 1985 and 1994. There are about 60,000 survivors of the atomic bombings and their average age is nearly 80 years old.
"Over these 70 years they have made the choice of activism," the IPB wrote in its nominating letter, "unceasingly recounting their experiences and struggles, and working constantly for a total ban and the elimination of nuclear weapons, appealing to governments and peoples all over the world."
The IPB reminds us that hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) "are quite simply extraordinary human beings; not giving in to despair, they became convinced, through their struggle to survive the attacks and the subsequent long years of suffering, that their agonies must never be repeated anywhere."
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