Nihon Hidankyo’s Nobel Prize: Voices for Peace / Young Delegation Member Urges Everyone to Promote Peace; Hayashida Hopes Attending Ceremony Will Become Reference for Young People Worldwide

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:51 JST, December 9, 2024

The following interview is part of a series in which members of the delegation of Nihon Hidankyo [Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations] express themselves ahead of attending the award ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Tuesday.

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Interview with Mitsuhiro Hayashida

Youngest member of the delegation at 32

My grandfather was in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. As a Youth Communicator for A World Without Nuclear Weapons, I had submitted a petition to the United Nations calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

I enrolled in a university in Tokyo and became involved in international petitions with groups such as Nihon Hidankyo. When I think about the hibakusha atomic bomb survivors who died without knowing they had been chosen as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, it makes me happy but also frustrated.

I once accompanied Mr. Sumiteru Taniguchi [who is a former Hidankyo cochairperson and passed away in 2017] as he spoke to students on a school trip about his experience. His back was badly burned as a result of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki.

As I was facing the audience, I could see students nodding off or chatting while he was talking. I was deeply moved by his strong spirit as he discussed how horrifying nuclear weapons are, even in front of such an audience.

I think the driving force behind the activities of hibakusha is to pass the baton on to the next generation. There’s no meaning if all you’re doing is receiving the baton. You have to think about how to pass it on to the next person so they can receive it smoothly, and then to the next and the next.

I returned to my hometown of Nagasaki in 2021 and established a general incorporated association to promote peace education. My organization takes students on school trips to see places and structures that tell the horrors of the bombing, as well as hold workshops. In November, Global Citizen Fes, an event to think about peace through listening to live music, was held in Nagasaki for the first time.

Most of the time, only those involved in peace activities are asked the question of how to pass on the experiences of hibakusha. However, all of us should be thinking about this issue.

I think that someone like me, a non-hibakusha who did not experience the war, attending the [Nobel Prize] award ceremony would become a reference for people of the same generation around the world.

I hope that all of us will constantly ask ourselves the big question of “how can we create a peaceful world?”

— Interviewed by Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Kyoko Mine