Japanese organization of survivors of the atomic bombings receives Nobel Peace prize

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.

Joergen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee made the announcement in Oslo on Friday.

He said the award was given to the organization "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."

Efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honored in the past by the Nobel committee.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the Peace Prize in 2017 and in 1995 Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”

This year's prize was awarded against a backdrop of devastating conflicts raging in the world, notably in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.