OSLO, Norway—Terumi Tanaka, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan and representative of the company that won this year’s Nobel Holiday Prize, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to stop him from issuing a nuclear ultimatum.
The 92-year-old spoke at a news conference in Oslo, Norway, ahead of a ceremony where he was to give a lecture in the name of Nihon Hidankyo, a company dedicated to survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which Had won the award. 12 Month Award.
Asked by a reporter if he had any message for Putin, Tanaka said that the Russian leader’s repeated nuclear ultimatums convinced him that Putin must not realize how terrible the cost of nuclear weapons would be. Can.
He said his group’s message to Putin – which he said was also immediately conveyed to the Russian leader – was that “nuclear weapons are things that should never be used.”
“I don’t think he ever thought about it or understood it. That’s why he is able to say such things. So I think how we can change the way he thinks, we need him to really understand what these are,” he said through a translator.
The first American atomic bomb detonated on August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima. Another 70,000 people were killed in the second attack on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending Global Conflict II.
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Tanaka was 13 years old and lived in Nagasaki when America dropped the atomic bomb there.
While he himself did not suffer major casualties this year, he lost five population participants, and has said that the images of charred bodies in the destroyed city are seared into his memory.
Jørgen Watne Friednes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in announcing the prize a few weeks ago that it was created because “the prohibition against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.”
The Committee said that instead of pursuing disarmament, nuclear powers are upgrading their arsenals, with generational countries preparing to acquire nuclear weapons. It also says the ultimatum is being given to pay for guns in the ongoing war, an apparent connection to Russia’s ultimatum amid the conflict in Ukraine.
Senior members of the Jap task force are calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, a message additionally directed at the US.
Tanaka said that “we are older now” but still feel an “overwhelming sense of responsibility” as observers to remind the world of the destructiveness of nuclear weapons.
“Nuclear weapons and humanity cannot co-exist,” he said.
