The Worcester City Council honored a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor and members of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Nihon Hidankyo, presenting a key to the city and proclaiming May 5, 2026, as Nuclear Non-Proliferation Day in Worcester.
The recognition centered on Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, a national organization founded in 1956 by survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its decades-long advocacy against nuclear weapons and its efforts to preserve firsthand testimony from survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha.
Mayor Joe Petty presented the proclamation and key to the city to Hiroshi Kanamoto, Yoshinori Ohmura and Yayoi Tsuchido during the May 5 council meeting.
In reading the proclamation, Petty referenced the continued existence of roughly 12,000 nuclear warheads worldwide and called attention to international efforts aimed at nuclear disarmament, including the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The proclamation stated that Nihon Hidankyo’s mission helps “warn future generations about the consequences of using nuclear weapons.”
Kanamoto, speaking through a translator, told councilors he survived the bombing of Hiroshima as an infant.
“My name is Hiroshi Kanamoto,” he said. “I’m an atomic bomb survivor from Hiroshima, and I was just nine months old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I was at 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, and it was a miracle that I could survive.”
Kanamoto thanked the city for recognizing the organization’s work and said the acknowledgment strengthens its continued efforts to educate people around the world about the devastation caused by nuclear warfare.
“We will continue our activity to let the people of the world know about the real damage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to increase the support for the elimination of nuclear weapons,” he said.
Founded more than a decade after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Nihon Hidankyo has spent decades advocating for nuclear disarmament, support for atomic bomb survivors and international nonproliferation efforts. According to the organization, it remains the only nationwide group in Japan representing survivors of the bombings.
The organization has frequently sent survivors around the world to share personal accounts of the attacks and advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In awarding the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the group had helped establish what it described as a global “nuclear taboo.”
During its Nobel lecture in Oslo last year, Nihon Hidankyo Co-Chair Terumi Tanaka warned that the risk of nuclear conflict remains urgent despite decades of disarmament efforts.
“Let not humanity destroy itself with nuclear weapons,” Tanaka said during the December 2024 address. “Let us work together for a human society, in a world free of nuclear weapons and of wars.”
Petty said the city’s proclamation was intended to recognize both the organization’s mission and the importance of preserving survivor testimony for future generations.
