Nihon Hidankyo Chief Says Nobel Peace Prize "Like Dream"

Hiroshima/Tokyo, Oct. 11 (Jiji Press)--A senior official of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, expressed joy after the group of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors was named this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

"It's really like a dream," Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki said at a press conference in the western Japan city of Hiroshima, one of the two Japanese cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombings in the closing days of World War II.

The group's winning of the prize will "strengthen our voice," Mimaki said. "We, the hibakusha, must continue to advocate until all nuclear weapons are eradicated from the face of the earth."

Mimaki also said that he wants to report the group's achievement to Sunao Tsuboi, his predecessor who spearheaded the group's efforts for decades until his death in 2021.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, on a visit to Laos, said that Nihon Hidankyo's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize is "extremely significant."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]