Hiroshima Survivor Wins Nobel Prize
Japanese activist, Setsuko Thurlow, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
The 85-year-old was 13 when she survived the world’s first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August, 1945.
Thurlow was in her classroom, 1.8 kilometres from the centre of the blast, when it struck at 8:15 that morning.
Thurlow recalls the horror she survived: “As I crawled out, the ruins were on fire. Most of my classmates in that building were burned to death alive. I saw all around me utter, unimaginable devastation…Grotesquely wounded people, they were bleeding, burnt, blackened and swollen. Parts of their bodies were missing.”
Eight of her family members, and 351 of her schoolmates and teachers died in the bombing, which destroyed the entire city.
Estimations of the total death toll vary widely between 90 000 and 146 000 innocent people.
The lingering radiation caused illness and birth defects for decades in those exposed to the blast.
Thurlow shares the award with her colleague, ICAN’s executive director, Beatrice Fihn.
After accepting the award, Fihn warned that the world faces a modern “nuclear crisis” made worse by “bruised egos”.
Referring to the rivalry between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, she added: “[T]he deaths of millions may be one tiny tantrum away”.
ICAN, formed in 2007, is a non-governmental organisation that draws attention to the humanitarian risks of nuclear weapons.
Image: Setsuko Thurlow and Beatrice Fihn accept the Nobel Peace Prize [online image] (2017) sourced on 11 December 2017 at http://www.bostonherald.com/sites/default/files/styles/gallery/public/media/ap/2017/12/10/4628828015a54c24b5b32947b747a6d9.jpg?itok=0MhQpuLS
