World
Bomb survivors use Nobel Peace Prize win to share their anti-nuke message with younger generations
TOKYO (AP) — The recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a fast-dwindling group of atomic bomb survivors who are facing down the shrinking time they have left to convey the firsthand horror they witnessed 79 years ago.
Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons. The survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as their last chance to get their message out to younger generations.
“We must seriously think about the succession of our messages. We must thoroughly hand over from our generation to the future generations,” Toshiyuki Mimaki, senior member of the Hiroshima branch of Hidankyo, told reporters Friday night.
“With the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize, we now have a responsibility to get our messages handed down not only in Japan but also across the world.”
The honor rewards members’ grassroots efforts to keep telling their stories — even though that involved recollecting horrendous ordeals during and after the bombings, and facing discrimination and worries about their health from the lasting radiation impact — for the sole purpose of never again let that happen.
Shigemitsu Tanaka, the chairman of Nagasaki Atomic bomb Survivors Council, cries during a press conference, in Nagasaki, western Japan, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize.(Kyodo News via AP)
Now, with their average age at 85.6, the hibakusha are increasingly frustrated that their fear of a growing nuclear threat and push to eliminate nuclear weapons are not fully understood by younger generations.
The number of prefectural hibakusha groups decreased from 47 to 36. And the Japanese government, under the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection, has refused to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon.
But there is hope, and a youth movement seems to be starting, the Nobel committee noted.
Three high school students accompanied Mimaki at the city hall, stood by him as the prize winner was announced, and promised to keep their activism alive.
“I had goose bumps when I heard the announcement,” said a beaming Wakana Tsukuda. “I have felt discouraged by negative views about nuclear disarmament, but the Nobel Peace Prize made me renew my commitment to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons.”
Another high school student, Natsuki Kai, said, “I will keep up my effort so we can believe that nuclear disarmament is not a dream but a reality.”
In Nagasaki, another group of students celebrated Hidankyo’s win. Yuka Ohara, 17, thanked the survivors’ yearslong effort despite the difficulty. Ohara said she heard her grandparents, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, repeatedly tell her the importance of peace in daily life. “I want to learn more as I continue my activism.”
People visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, southern Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)
In April, a group of people set up a network, Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, connecting younger generations around the country to work with survivors and pursue their effort.
Efforts to document the survivors’ stories and voices have grown in recent years around Japan, including in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo. In some places, young volunteers are working with hibakusha to succeed their personal story telling when they are gone.
The first U.S. atomic bombing killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima. A second atomic attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing an end to its nearly half-century aggression in Asia.
Hidankyo was formed 11 years later in 1956. There was a growing anti-nuclear movement in Japan in response to U.S. hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific that led to a series of radiation exposures by Japanese boats, adding to demands for government support for health problems.
As of March, 106,823 survivors — 6,824 fewer than a year ago, and nearly one-quarter of the total in the 1980s — were certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Many others, including those who say they were victims of the radioactive “black rain” that fell outside the initially designated areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are still without support.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it eliminated Hamas Commander Anas Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, who infiltrated Israel and participated in the Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival Massacre.
Hamed was killed during a targeted Monday strike in Gaza, the IDF announced Tuesday.
“The IDF struck yesterday in the center of the Gaza Strip and eliminated Ans Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, Nukhba commander in the Hamas terror organization, who raided the territory of the State of Israel and the Nova festival during the murderous massacre on October 7,” the IDF wrote in a Tuesday morning post on X.
The IDF called Hamed an “immediate threat to IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip,” and said he was “eliminated in a precise airstrike.”
ISRAEL ANNOUNCES IT KILLED ONE OF THE ARCHITECTS OF THE OCT. 7 ATTACKS
A poster of Hamas Nukhba Commander Anas Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed, who the Israel Defense Forces claim to have eliminated, Monday, May 4, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF said it has forces “deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat.”
Nukhba, which is Arabic for elite, is the special forces for the Al-Qassam Brigades, which is Hamas’ military wing.
Both units were instrumental in the Oct. 7 massacre. The Al-Qassam Brigades planned and executed the attack, according to the IDF and the Counter Extremism Project. Of the 6,000 terrorists who invaded Israel during the attack, more than 3,800 were Nukhba fighters, the IDF stated in an August 2024 assessment.
The Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Israelis and prompted a sprawling Israeli military campaign in Gaza. During this campaign, the IDF eliminated two commanders of the al-Qassam Brigades and numerous other members of the group’s military leadership.
ISRAELI MILITARY OPERATION IN GAZA EXPANDING TO SEIZE ‘LARGE AREAS’: ‘EXPANDING TO CRUSH AND CLEAN THE AREA’
Palestinian Hamas fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades participate in a military parade near the border in the central Gaza Strip on July 19, 2023, marking the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)
A July 2024 targeted strike killed then-al-Qassam Brigades Commander Mohammed Deif. In May 2025, another airstrike killed his replacement, Mohammad Sinwar.
The latest Israeli strike in Gaza comes just under seven months after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in October. The IDF accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire in February by using ambulances to transport terrorists and weapons around the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire with daily airstrikes.
HAMAS TERRORISTS USE AMBULANCES, SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS IN VIOLATION OF US-BROKERED CEASEFIRE, IDF OFFICIAL SAYS
Fox News’ Trey Yingst asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week if Hamas’ refusal to put down its weapons would prompt the Trump administration to support Israel resuming combat operations in Gaza.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio wait as President Donald Trump prepares to address the Knesset in Jerusalem on Oct. 13, 2025. Trump visited Israel hours after Hamas released some Israeli hostages as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal in the Gaza conflict. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Let’s hope we can avoid that. That’s not the outcome we want,” Rubio told Yingst. “The outcome we want is for Hamas to be demilitarized, and a Palestinian security force backed by an international security force is able to secure Gaza.
Fox News Digital reached out to the IDF and the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report.
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Ukraine struck a critically important military-industrial complex in Russia on Tuesday, just days before the Kremlin’s Victory Day parade on 9 May.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published a video of launches of domestically-made Flamingo cruise missiles, which he said covered a distance of more than 1,500km to strike a facility in Cheboksary in the Russian Federation’s Chuvash Republic.
The facility in question is a Russian state institute that produces components for high-precision weapons used by Moscow to attack Ukraine.
“The struck military production facility manufactured relay protection systems, automation equipment, and low-voltage apparatus,” Zelenskyy wrote.
“Russia must end its war and move to real diplomacy. We have made our proposal.”
Zelenskyy announced on Monday that Ukraine is declaring a ceasefire beginning at midnight on Wednesday. The proposal came in response to Russia’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire for its Victory Day parade.
“We believe that human life is far more valuable than any anniversary ‘celebration’,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russia’s upcoming 9 May commemorations.
He warned that the timeframe of the proposed truce at midnight on the night of 5–6 May would be enough to test whether a genuine pause in fighting could be respected.
“We will act reciprocally starting from that moment,” Zelenskyy said.
“It is time for Russian leaders to take real steps to end their war, especially since Russia’s defence ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine’s goodwill.”
Victory Day blackout
Russia has reportedly started cutting off mobile internet services to many users starting from Tuesday.
Russian banks, including the country’s largest, Sberbank, also cautioned that there could be issues with mobile internet and cash withdrawals.
This year the parade in Moscow will also be significantly scaled back, according to the Kremlin.
It would not feature military vehicles or cadets due to what the Kremlin described as “current operational situation”.
“All measures are being taken to minimise the danger,” Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier as he referred to what Moscow called a “terrorist threat” from Ukraine.
The fact that the parade is scaled down is seen as an important indicator of the situation in Russia’s military and of personnel and equipment shortages.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank assessed that in April, Russian forces lost territory they occupied in Ukraine for the first time in over a year and a half.
The ISW said it has evidence that Moscow lost control of 116 square kilometres over the course of last month.
The think tank explained that the Russian rate of advance across the battlefield has been steadily declining since November 2025,” as continued Ukrainian ground counterattacks and mid-range strikes, the February block on Russia’s use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s throttling of Telegram have exacerbated existing problems within the Russian military.
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