DefenseNobel laureate vows to keep voice heard 'as long as we are alive'Representatives of Nihon Hidankyo pose for a commemorative photograph with the Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma awarded at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo in November 2024. © KyodoAugust 10, 2026 15:21 JSTNAGASAKI (Kyodo) -- Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading group of atomic bomb survivors, renewed its pledge Monday to continue its efforts toward realizing a world free of nuclear weapons as it marked the 70th anniversary of its founding."It is each citizen of world who will build a human society without nuclear weapons and wars. We will keep calling for it as long as we are alive," the group, formally known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, said in a statement.The group, established in Nagasaki on Aug. 10, 1956, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024 "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."Around 214,000 people are estimated to have died by the end of 1945 due to the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima, on Aug. 6, and Nagasaki, on Aug. 9, of that year, toward the end of World War II.The group's activities have centered on promoting the social and economic rights of all hibakusha, including those living outside Japan, and ensuring no one faces a nuclear catastrophe again.