Members of Nihon Hidankyo, Japan’s leading group of atomic bomb survivors and this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, are set to hold a press conference in Oslo on Monday ahead of the award ceremony.
The delegation totals 30 people, including 17 atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with some members traveling to the Norwegian capital from abroad, according to the organization.
Terumi Tanaka, cochair of the group, also known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, is expected to deliver a speech at Tuesday’s ceremony.
Before departing for Oslo, the 92-year-old expressed his desire to showcase to the world the activism of the survivors, or hibakusha, who have consistently advocated for nuclear abolition.
Representatives of the group Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82, and Shigemitsu Tanaka, 84, will also join the stage at Tuesday’s event.
Members of the delegation have a packed schedule during their stay in Oslo through Thursday, including interviews and school visits, with some expected to meet members of the Norwegian royal family.
The organization, founded in 1956, won the prize “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again,” according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
In addition to the delegation, a group of about 50 people, including a dozen hibakusha, has arrived in Oslo on a tour cohosted by the nongovernmental organization Peace Boat and the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. The group is scheduled to participate in various peace events and observe the ceremony.
